,
l.',o....IIi.........._ ......:.iiiilBAl ·
The of one of lht: "Beakt:r" peoplt:. al Bamack. CambriJReshiTe.
dlxml /800 BC. It conwins a fineb Jecoraud POtlery be(tker anda copperor
daggcr. Borh itemsdistinguisht..>J lhe Beaker peoplt: fnnn llu: t:aTlicr
inh.wilanf.S. This «'ill llu: nwin bUr"k1l pku:e benRtlm one of a groupof
"bcmxcs". or burial mOlmas.
Neolirhic Britons beca use of their mil itar y or met al -
working skills. Their infl uence was soon felt and, as
a result, they became leaders of Brit ish soc iety.
Their arrival is marked by the first ind ividual
graves, furni shed with pottery beakers, from whi ch
these peopl e get their name: the "Beaker" people.
Why did people now dec ide to be buried separately
and give up the old communa l burial barrows? It is
di ffi cul t to be certai n, but it is thought that the old
barr ows were built partl y to please the gods of the
soil, in the hope that this would stop the chalk
upland soil gett ing poorer. The Beaker people
brought with them from Europe a new cereal,
barley, whi ch could grow almost anywhere. Perh aps
they fel t it was no longer necessary to please the
gods of the cha lk upland soil.
5
An Illustrated History of Britain
Maiden Ccsde. Dorset, is oneof thelargesrCeltic hiU·farrs
of the early lr071 Age. Ics strength can stiUbedean)' seen.
but et'fi'l these forTifications were no defence against
disciplined Roman troops.
The Beaker people probably spoke an Indo-
European language. They seem to have brought a
single culture to the who le of Britain. They also
brought skills to make bronze too ls and these began
to replace stone ones. But th ey acce pte d man y of
the old ways. Stonehenge remained th e most
important centre unt il 1300 BC. The Beaker
people' s richest graves were the re, and they added a
new circle of thirt y stone columns , thi s time
connec ted by stone lintels, or cross-pieces. British
society continued to be centred on a number of
henges across the countryside.
However, from about 1300 BC onwards the henge
civilisation seems to have become less important ,
and was overt aken by a new form of society in
southern England, that of a settled farming class.
At first thi s farming society developed in order to
feed the peop le at the henges, but event ually it
became more important and powerful as it grew
richer. The new farmers grew wealthy beca use they
learn ed to enr ich the soil wit h natural waste
mate rials so that it did not become poor and
useless. This change probably happened at about
the same time that the chalk uplands were
becoming drier. Famil y villages and fort ified
enclosures appeared across the landscape, in lower-
lying areas as well as on the chalk hill s, and the old
central control of Stonehenge and the othe r henges
was lost .
6
A reconstructed lr071 Age fann. Farms like this were established in southeasl Britain
fram about 700 ec O71wards. This may haw been rhe main or even 0711)' building; largt
roundhurs increasingly tookthe plau of smaller ones. ''ThRir houses are large. round.
built of planks anduiekeruurk. theroof beinga dome oflMlCh, .. wr ote the Greek
philosopher Srrabo. In men ofCeltic Europe hws were square.
From thi s time, too, power seems to have shifted to
the Thames valley and southeas t Britain. Except for
short periods, poli t ical and econo mic power has
remained in the southeast ever since. Hi ll-forts
replaced henges as the cent res of local power, and
most of these were found in the southeast,
suggest ing that the land successfully suppor ted more
peopl e here than elsewhere.
There was another reason for the shift of power
eastwards. A number of better-designed bronze
swords have been found in the Thames valley,
suggesting th at the local people had more adva nced
met alworking skills. Man y of these swords have
been found in river beds, almost cert ainly thrown
in for religious reasons. This custom may be the
or igin of the story of the legendary King Arrhur's
sword, which was given to h im from out of th e
water and which was thrown back into the wate r
when he died.
The Celts
Around 700 BC, ano ther group of peopl e began to
arrive. Many of them were tall, and had fair or red
hair and blue eyes. These were the Celts, who
probably came from central Europe or furt he r east ,
from southern Russia, and had moved slowly
westwards in earlier centuries. The Cel ts were
technically advanced. They knew how to work with
iron, and co uld make bet ter weapons than the
people who used bronze. It is possible th at they
drove many of the older inhabitants westwards into
W"les, Scot land and Ireland. The Celts began to
control "11 the lowland areas of Britai n, and were
joined bv new arrivals from the European mainl and.
They continued to arrive in one wave after anot her
over the next seven hundred years.
The Celts are important in British histor y because
they "re the ances tors of many of the peop le in
Highland Scot land. W" les, Ireland, and Cornwall
today. The Iberian people of W" ]es and Cornwall
rook on the new Cel tic culture. Cel tic languages,
which have been continuously used in some areas
since that time, "re still spoken. The British today
"re often descri bed as Anglo-Saxon. It would he
better to call them Anglo-Celr.
Our knowledge of the Cel ts is slight. As with
previous groups of settlers, we do not eve n know for
certain whether the Celts invaded Britain or came
peacefullv as a result of the lively trade with Europe
fron, "hour 750 ne onwards, At first most of Cel t ic
Britain seems to have devel oped in a generally
similar way. But from about 500 ne trade contact
with Europe declined, and regional differences
between northwest and southeast Britain increased.
The Cel ts were organised int o different tribes, and
tribal chiefs were chosen from each famil y or tribe,
sometimes as the result of fighting matches between
individuals, and sometimes bv elect ion.
The last Celtic arrivals from Europe were the Belgic
tribes. It was natural for th em to settle in the
southeas t of Britain , probably pushing othe r Celtic
tribes northwards as they did so. Ar any rate , when
[ulius Caesar briefl y visited Britain in 55 IlC he saw
that the Belgic tri bes were different from the older
inhabitant s. "The interior is inhabited", he wrote,
"by peoples who consider themselves indigenous,
the coast by people who have crossed from
Belgium. Nearly "11 of these still keep the names of
the [European] tribes from which they came."
The Cel t ic tr ibes cont inued the same kind of
agriculture as th e Bronze Age people before them.
But their use of iron technology and their
1 The foundat ion sto nes
TheSwnu1ckrum.e lT1lUk ShOtllS rhe j ine Ilrrisric workof Cc/ric mew.!worken
in.wow AD 50. Thesimple fines mul lackuf derail Ml'e 11 t'CT) ptJU'crful
cffCCl .
int roducti on of more advanced ploughing methods
made it possible for them to farm heavier soils.
However, they continued ro use, and build, hill -
forts. The increase of these, part icularly in the
southeast, suggests that the Ce lts were highl y
successful farmers, growing eno ugh food for a much
larger populat ion.
The hill -fort remained the centre for local groups.
The insides of these hill -forts were fi lled with
houses, and they became the simple economic
capitals and smaller "towns" of the different tribal
areas into which Britain was now divided. Toda y
the empty hill -forts stand on lonel y hill tops. Yet
they remained local economic centres long after the
Romans ca me to Britain , and long after they went.
7
An Illustrated History of Britain
Within living memory certain annual fairs were
associa ted with hill -forts. For example, there was an
annual September fair on the site of a Dorset hill-
fort, which was used by the writer Thomas Hardy in
his novel Far fromthe Madding Crowd, published in
1874.
The Celts traded across tribal borders and trade was
probably important for political and social contact
between th e tri bes. Trade with Ireland went
through the island of Anglesey. The two main trade
outlets eastwards to Europe were the settlements
along the Thames River in the south and on the
Firth of Forth in the nort h. It is no acc ident that
the present-day capitals of England and Scotland
stand on or near these two ancient trade centres.
Much trade, both inside and beyond Britain , was
conducted by river and sea. For money the Cel ts
used iron bars, unt il they began to copy the Roman
coins they saw used in Gaul (France) .
According to the Romans, the Celtic men wore
shirts and breeches (knee-length trousers), and
str iped or chec ked cloaks fastened by a pin . It is
possible that the Scott ish tartan and dress
developed from this "str iped cloak". The Cel ts were
also "very careful about cleanl iness and neatness",
as one Roman wrote. "Neither man nor woman,"
he went on, "howeve r poor, was seen either ragged
or dirt y."
The Ce ltic tribes were ruled ove r by a warrior class,
of whi ch the priests, or Druids, seem to have been
parti cularly important members. These Druids
could not read or write, but they memorised all the
religious teachi ngs, the tribal laws, histor y,
medicine and ot her knowledge necessary in Celt ic
society. The Druids from different tribes all over
Britain probably met once a year. They had no
temples, but they met in sacred groves of trees, on
certain hill s, by rivers or by river sources. We know
littl e of their kind of worship except that at times it
included human sacrifice.
During the Celtic period women may have had
more independence than they had again for
hundreds of years. When the Romans invaded
Britain two of the largest tribes were ruled by
wome n who fought from their cha riots. The most
8
powerful Cel t to stand up to the Romans was a
woman , Boadicea. She had become queen of her
tribe when her husband had died. She was tall,
wit h long red hair, and had a frightening
appearance. In AD 61 she led her tribe against the
Romans. She nearly drove the m from Britain, and
she destroyed London, the Roman capital, before
she was defeat ed and kill ed. Roman writers
commented on the courage and strength of women
in battl e, and leave an impr ession of a measure of
equa lity betwee n the sexes among the richer Cel ts.
The Romans
The name "Britain" comes from the word
"Pretani ", the Greco- Rornan word for the
inhabit ant s of Britain. The Romans mispronounced
the word and called the island " Britannia".
The Romans had invaded because the Celts of
Brit ain were working with the Cel ts of Gaul against
th em. The British Celts were giving the m food, and
allowing th em to hide in Brit ain. There was
anot her reason . The Cel ts used cattle to pull their
ploughs and this meant that richer, heavier land
could be farmed. Under the Celts Britain had
become an important food producer because of its
mild climate. It now exported corn and animals, as
well as hunting dogs and slaves, to the Europea n
mainl and. The Romans could make use of Brit ish
food for thei r own army fight ing the Gauls.
The Romans brought the skills of reading and
writing to Britain. The written word was important
for spreading ideas and also for estab lishing power.
As early as AD 80, as one Roman at the time not ed,
the governor Agricola "trained the sons of chiefs in
the liberal art s .. . the result was th at the people
who used to reject Latin began to use it in speech
and writ ing. Further the wearing of our national
dress came to be valued and the toga [the Roman
cloak] came int o fashion." While the Cel t ic
peasantry remained illit erate and only Cel tic-
speaking, a number of town dwellers spoke Lat in
and Greek with ease, and the richer landowners in
the count ry almost certainly used Latin. Bur Latin
completely disappeared both in its spoken and
written forms when the Anglo-Saxons invaded
Britain in rhe fifth century AD. Britain was probably
more literate under the Romans than it was to be
again unt il the fifteenth century.
[ulius Caesar first came to Britain in 55 BC, but it
was not until almost a century later, in AD 43, that
a Roman army actu ally occupied Britain. The
Romans were determined to conquer the whole
island. They had little difficulty, apart from
Boadicea's revolt , because they had a better trained
army and because the Celtic tribes fought among
themselves. The Romans considered the Celts as
war-mad, "high spirited and quick for bat tle", a
descripti on some would st ill give the Scot s, Irish
and Wel sh today.
The Romans established a Romano-British culture
across the sout hern half of Britain, from the River
Humber to the River Severn. This part of Brita in
was inside the empire. Beyond were the upland
areas, under Roman control but not developed.
These areas were watched from the towns of York,
Chester and Caerleon in the western pen insula of
Britain that later became known as Wales. Each of
these towns was held by a Roman legion of about
7,000 men . The tot al Roman army in Britain was
about 40, 000 men .
The Romans could not conquer "Ca ledoni a", as
they called Scotland, although they spent over a
century trying to do so. At last they built a strong
wall along the northern border, named after the
Emperor Hadrian who planned it . At the time,
Hadrian's wall was simply intended to keep out
raiders from the north. But it also marked the
border between th e two later countries, England
and Scotland. Eventually, the border was
established a few miles furt her nort h. Efforts to
change it in later centuries did not succeed , mainly
because on either side of the border an invading
army found its supply line overstretched. A natural
point of balance had been found.
Roman cont rol of Britain came to an end as the
empir e began to collapse. The first signs were the
attacks by Cel ts of Caledonia in AD 367. The
Roman legions found it more and more difficult to
stop the raiders from crossing Hadri an's wall. The
same was happening on the European mainland as
I The foundation stones
Germanic groups, Saxons and Franks, began to raid
the coast of Gaul, In A D 409 Rome pulled its last
soldiers out of Britai n and the Romano-Briti sh, the
Romanised Celts, were left to fight alone against
the Scots, the Irish and Saxon raider s from
Germany. The following year Rome itself fell to
raiders. When Britain called to Rome for help
against the raiders from Saxon Germa ny in the
mid-fifth century, no answer came .
Roman life
The most obvious characteristic of Roman Britain
was its towns, which were the basis of Roman
administration and civi lisat ion. Many grew out of
Celtic settlements , military camps or market
centres. Broadly, ther e were three different kinds of
town in Roman Britain , two of whi ch were towns
established by Roman cha rter. These were the
coloniae, towns peopled by Roman settlers, and the
municipia, large cities in which the who le
popu lati on was given Roman citizenship. The third
kind, the civitas, included th e old Celt ic tr ibal
cap itals, through which the Romans administered
the Cel tic populat ion in the countryside. At first
these towns had no walls. Then, probably from the
end of the second century to the end of the thi rd
century AD, almost every town was given walls. At
fi rst many of these were no more than earthworks,
but by AD 300 all towns had thick stone walls.
The Romans left about twenty large towns of about
5, 000 inhabitants, and almost one hundred smaller
ones. Many of thes e towns were at first army camps,
and the Latin word for camp, castra, has remained
part of many town names to this day (with th e
ending chester, caster or cesrer) : Gloucester, Lei-
cester, Doncaster, Winchester, Chester, Lancaster
and many others besides. These towns were built
with stone as well as wood , and had plan ned
streets, markets and shops. Some build ings had
central heating. They were connected by roads
which were so well built that th ey survived when
later roads broke up. These roads cont inued to be
used long after the Romans left , and became the
main roads of modern Brita in. Six of these Roman
roads met in London, a capital city of about 20,000
9
An Illustrated History of Britain
The reconslrw,:tiOll of a ROITI4m
kifcht.>t1 ab!:JW AD 100 shuu's txJl.5
and cqllipmetlf. The ~ 1 I 1 pOIS , or
amphorae. were for wne or oil.
TheR(JI1'UlflS proolh.-l.'d willl.' in
Briwin, bill the)' als(l imtxmeJ if
from S(JU ffu.'TTl Europe.
people. London was twice the size of Paris, and
possibly the most important trading cent re of
northern Europe, because southeast Britain
produced so much co rn for export.
Outside the towns, the biggest change during the
Roman occ upation was the growth of large farms,
called "vi llas". These belonged fa rhe richer Britons
who were, like the townspeople, more Roman than
Celt in thei r manners. Each villa had many
workers. The vill as were usually cl ose to towns so
that the crops could be sold easily. There was a
growing difference betwee n the rich and those who
did the actual work on the land . These. and most
people. still lived in the same kind of round hu ts
and villages which the Cel ts had been living in four
hundred years earlier. when the Romans arr ived.
In some ways life in Roman Britain seems very
civilised. but it was also hard for all exce pt the
richest. The bodies buried in a Roman graveyard at
York show tha t life expectancy was low. Half the
ent ire population died between the ages of twenty
and forty. whil e 15 pet cent died before reaching
the age of twent y.
10
It is very difficult to be sure how many peop le were
living in Britain when the Romans left. Probably it
was as many as five million. partly because of the
peace and the increased econo mic life which the
Romans had brought to the count ry. The new wave
of invaders cha nged all that .
2 The Saxon invasion
The invaders ' Government and society' Christianity: the partnership of
Church and state ' The Vikings' Who should be king?
TheAnglo-Saxon inMSK:ms andthe kingdoms they established.
The strength of Anglo-Saxon culture is obvious
even today. Days of the week were na med after
Ge rmanic gods: Ti g (Tuesday), Wod in
(Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), Frei (Friday). New
place-names appeared on the map. The first of
D ANGLES N
D SAXONS J
o JUTES
o l 00 km
Whilby
. York
M E R C IA
,
,
'Q
''''
,.
,.-
WALES \ ~
, ~
""
,
known as Scotland. Some Cel ts stayed behind, and
many became slaves of the Saxons. Hardl y anything
is left of Ce ltic language or culture in England,
except for th e names of some rivers, Thames,
Mersey, Severn and Avon , and two large cities,
London and Leeds.
The invaders
The weal th of Britain by the fourth century, the
result of its mild climat e and centur ies of peace , was
a temptation to the greedy. At fi rst the Germanic
ir ibes only raided Britain , but after AD 430 they
began to set tle. The newcomers were warlike and
illiterate. We owe our knowledge of thi s period
mainly to an English monk named Bede, who lived
three hundred years later. His story of events in his
Ecclesiastical History of the English People has been
proved generally corr ect by archaeological
evidence.
Bede tell s us that the invaders came from three
powerful Ge rmanic tribes, the Saxons, Angles and
[ utes. The [utes settled mainly in Kent and along
the south coas t, and were soon considered no dif-
ferent from the Angles and Saxons. The Angles
settled in the east, and also in the nort h Midlands,
while the Saxons settled betwee n the [ utes and the
Angles in a band of land from the Thames Estuary
westwards. The Anglo-Saxon migrati ons gave the
larger part of Britain its new name, England , "the
land of the Angles".
The Brit ish Celts fought the raiders and settlers
from Ge rmany as well as they could. However ,
during the next hundred years they were slowly
pushed westwards until by 570 they were forced
west of Gl oucester. Finally most were driven into
the mountains in the far west , whi ch the Saxons
called "Weallas", or "Wales", meaning "the land of
the foreigne rs". Some Celts were driven into
Cornwall, whe re they lat er accep ted the rule of
Saxon lords. In the north, other Cel ts were dr iven
into the lowlands of the country which became
11
An Illustrated History of Brirain
these show that the earliest Saxon villages, like the
Cel t ic ones, were family villages. The ending -ing
meant folk or family, thus "Reading" is rhe place of
the family of Rada, "Hast ings" of the family of
Hasta. Ham means farm, ton means settlement.
Birmingha m, Nottingham or Southampton, for
example, are Saxon place-names. Because the
Anglo-Saxon kings often established sett lements ,
Kingston is a frequent place-na me.
The Anglo-Saxons established a number of
kingdoms, some of which still exist in county or
regional names to this day: Essex (East Saxons),
Sussex (South Saxons), Wessex (West Saxons),
Middlesex (probably a kingdom of Middle Saxons),
East Anglia (East Angles). By the middle of the
seventh cent ury th e three largest kingdoms, those
of Nort humbria, Merc ia and Wessex, were the
most powerful.
Left: A si/tier penny showingOffa, king of Mercia ( AV757-896), Offa
was mort' powerful thanany of the other Anglo-Saxon kings of his nme or
before him. Hi5 coins were of a higher quality than any coins used since the
departureof the Romans fourhundredyears earlier,
Right: A goldcoin of KingOffa, a direacop)' of an Arabdinar of the year
AD 774. Most of it is in Arabic, but onone side it also has "OFFAREX".
It tells US t1uu the Anglo-Saxons0/BriwinwereUJell aware of a more
advanced economic system in the distant Arabempire. and alwthat even as
far away as Britain andnorthern Europe, Arab-typegold coins were more
tnLSted thanany others. It shows how greal uere the distances cOt"eTed by
international trade at this time.
It was not unt il a century late r that one of these
kings, King Offa of Mercia (757-96) , claimed
"kingship of the English" . He had good reason to
do so. He was powerful enough to employ thou-
sands of men to build a huge dyke, or eart h wall,
the length of the Welsh border to keep out the
troublesome Cel ts. But although he was the most
powerful king of his t ime, he did not control all of
England.
The power of Mercia did not survive after Offa's
death. At that time, a king's power depended on
the person al loyalty of his followers. Aft er his death
the next king had to work hard ro rebuild these
personal feelings of loyal ty. Most peop le still
believed, as the Celts had done, that a man' s fi rst
12
duty was to his own family. However, thi ngs were
changing. The Saxon kings began to replace loyal ty
to family with loyal ty to lord and king.
Government and society
The Saxons created institutions which made the
English state strong for the next 500 years. One of
these institutions was the King's Counc il, called the
Witan. The Witan probably grew out of informal
groups of senior warriors and churchmen to whom
kings like Offa had turned for advice or support on
difficult matt ers. By the tenth century the Witan
was a formal body, issuing laws and charters. It was
not at all democrat ic, and th e king could decide to
ignore the Witan's advice. But he knew that it
might be dangerous to do so. For the Witan's
authority was based on its right to choose kings,
and to agree the use of the king's laws. Without its
support th e king's own author ity was in danger.
The Witan established a system which remained an
important part of the king's method of government .
Even today, the king or queen has a Privy Council,
a group of advisers on the affairs of state.
The Saxons div ided th e land int o new adminis-
trative areas, based on shires. or counties. These
shires, established by the end of the tenth century,
remained almost exactl y the same for a thousand
years. "Shir e" is the Saxon word, "county" the
Norman one, but both are st ill used. (In 1974 th e
counties were reorganised, but the new system is
very like the old one. ) Over each shire was ap-
pointed a shire reeve, the king's local administrator.
In time his name became sho rtened to "sheriff" .
Anglo-Saxon technology cha nged the shape of
English agriculture . The Cel ts had kept small,
square fields whi ch were well suited to the light
plough they used, drawn either by an animal or two
people. This plough could turn corners easily. The
Anglo-Saxons introduced a far heavier plough
whi ch was better able to plough in long straight
lines across the fi eld. It was part icularly useful for
cult ivating heavier soils. But it required six or eight
oxen to pull it , and it was difficult to turn. This
heavier plough led to changes in land owne rship
and organisation. In order to make the best use of
Recomtrucrion of an Anglo-Sa:wn I.'i llage. Each househad prob.ibly only
une room, with a wooden floor with a pit beneath ir. Thepit mayMve been
used for storage, bur mort' probably to keep che house off the damp ground.
Each tJi/lage had ir.s lord. TheUIOTd "lord"means "loaf u.'drd" or "bread
keeper", while "lady" means "loaf kneader" or "breadmaker", a reminder
tMrthe rosis of $axon socit'IY u.'aS farming . Thed U l ~ of the dlIage head, or
lord. wasto protect the farm andits produce.
village land. it was divided into two or three very
large fields. T hese were then div ided again into
long thin str ips. Each family had a number of str ips
in each of these fields. amount ing probably to a
family "holding" of twe nty or so acres. Ploughing
these long thin strips was easier because it avo ided
the prob lem of tu rning. Few indi vidual families
could afford to keep a team of oxe n . and these had
to be sha red on a co-operat ive basis.
One of these fields would be used for plant ing
spring crops, and another for autumn crops. The
th ird area would be left to rest for a year. and with
the othe r areas after harvest , would be used as
common land for animals to feed on. T his Anglo-
Saxon pattern, which became more and more
common. was the basis of English agricult ure for a
thousand years. until t he eighteenth century.
It needs only a moment's thought to recog nise th at
the fair di vision of land and of teams of oxe n. and
the sensible management of village land sha red out
between families. meant th at villagers had to wor k
more closel y toget her than they had ever done
before.
The Saxons ser tled previously unfanned areas. They
cut down many foresred areas in valleys to farm the
richer lowland soil. and they began to drain the wet
2 The Saxon invasion
land. As a result . almost all the villages which
appear on eightee nt h-century maps already existed
by the ele venth cent ury.
In eac h distri ct was a "manor" or large house. Thi s
was a simple bui lding where local villagers came to
pay taxes, whe re justice was administered. and
whe re men met toget he r to join the Anglo-Saxon
army. the fyrd. The lord of the manor had to
organise all this. and make sure village land was
properly sha red. It was th e beginning of the
manor ial system which reached its fullest
development under th e Normans.
At first th e lords, or aldeml en. were simply loca l
officials. But by th e beginning of the el eventh
century th ey were warlords. and were ofte n ca lled
by a new Dan ish name, earl. Both words, alderman
and earl . remain with us today: alderme n are
elected officers in local gove rnment . and earls are
high ranking nobles. It was the beginning of a cl ass
system, made up of ki ng. lords. soldiers and workers
on th e land. One other important class developed
during th e Saxon period. th e men of learning.
These came from the Christ ian Church.
Christianity: the partnership of
Church and state
We canno t kno w how or when Christia nity first
reached Britain. but it was certa inly well before
Christianity was accepted by the Roman Emperor
Consrant ine in the early fourt h cent ury AD. In th e
last hundred years of Roman governme nt
Christianity became firmly established across
Brit ain , both in Roman-control led areas and
beyond. However. the Anglo-Saxons belo nged to
an older Germanic religion. and they drove th e
Celts into the west and north. In th e Celt ic areas
Christ ianity cont inued to spread. bringing pagani sm
to an end. The map of Wales sho ws a number of
place-names beginni ng or ending with llan.
meaning the site of a small Celt ic monast ery around
which a village or town grew.
In 597 r ope Gregory the Great sent a monk.
Augusti ne. to re-establish Christianity in England.
He went to Canterbury, th e capital of the king of
Kent. He did so beca use the king's wife came from
13
An Illustrated History of Britain
Theopening page of St Luke's Gospel, made al the Northumbrian island of
LiTll:li5fame, about AD 698, In hi:s History, Bede wrote hou.o one manfOld
lhe pagan Northumbrian king, "when '014 aresittingin winterwilh your
lords in thefeasting hall, with a good firere wann and light it, a spalTow Jlies
infrom the storms of rainandsnowourside. It fli es inal one door, acTOS5 the
lighted room andout through lhe other dCI(IT into thedarkncHand511mltS
ours ide. In the :same way man comesinto the light f(IT a shcITt lime, bul of
UMt came be{VTe, orwhatis to follow, man is ignorant. 1{ this new teaching
teUs U!i :something more certain, il :s:eentS worthfollot.l!ing." Christianit)'
gave the Anglo-Saxon Ul(n'/d new certainl)'.
Europe and was already Christian. August ine
became the first Archb ishop of Canterbury in 60 I .
He was very successful. Severa l ruling families in
England accept ed Christianity. But Augustine and
his group of monks made little progress with the
ordina ry people. This was partl y beca use Augustine
was interested in establishing Chr istian aut hority,
and that meant bringing rulers to th e new faith .
It was the Celtic Church which brought
Christianity to the ordinary people of Britain. The
Celtic bishops went out from their mon asteries of
Wales, Ireland and Scotland, walking from village
14
to village teaching Christianity. In spite of the
differences between Anglo-Saxons and Ce lts, these
bishops seem to have been readil y accepted in
Anglo-Saxon areas. The bishops from the Roman
Church lived at the courts of the kings, which they
made cent res of Church power across England. The
two Christ ian Churches, Celt ic and Roman, could
hardly have been more different in character. One
was most interested in the hearts of ordinary
people, the other was interested in authority and
organisation. The competition between the Cel tic
and Roman Churches reached a crisis because they
disagreed over the date of Easter. In 663 at the
Synod (meet ing) of Whitby the king of
Northumbria decided to support the Roman
Church. The Celt ic Church retreat ed as Rome
extended its authority over all Christians, eve n in
Cel t ic parts of the island.
England had become Christ ian very qui ckly. By 660
only Sussex and the Isle of Wight had not accepted
the new faith. Twen ty years lat er, English teache rs
returned to the lands from which the An glo-Saxons
had come, bringing Christianity to much of
Germany.
Saxon kings helped the Church to grow, but the
Church also increased the power of kings. Bishops
gave kings their support , which made it harder for
royal power to be questioned. Kings had "God's
approval ". The value of Church approval was all
the greater because of the uncer taint y of th e royal
succession. An eldest son did not automatically
beco me king, as kings were chosen from among the
members of the royal family, and any member who
had eno ugh soldiers might try for the th rone. In
addit ion, at a time when one king might try to
conquer a neighbouring kingdom, he would
probably have a son to whom he would wish to pass
thi s enlarged kingdom when he died. Ami so when
King Offa arranged for his son to be crowned as his
successor, he made sure that this was done at a
Christ ian ceremony led by a bishop. It was good
political propaganda, because it suggested tha t kings
were chosen not only by people but also by God.
There were other ways in whi ch th e Church
increased the power of th e English state. It
established monasteries, or minsters, for example
2 The Saxon invasion
The Vikings
Towards the end of th e eighth cent ury new raider s
were tempted by Britain 's wealth. These were the
Vi kings, a word which probably means eirher
"pir ates" or "t he people of th e sea inl ets", and the y
came from Norway and Denmark. Like the Angle-
Saxons they only raided at first . They burnt
churches and monasteries along the east, north and
west coasts of Britain and Ireland. London was itself
raided in 842.
In 865 the Vikings invaded Britain once it was
clear that the quarrelling Anglo-Saxo n kingdoms
could not keep them out . This time they came
to conquer and to set tle. The Vikings quickly
accepted Christ ianity and did not disturb the local
populat ion. By 875 only King Alfred in the west
of Wessex held out against the Vikings, who had
already taken most of England. After some serious
defeat s Alfred won a dec isive battle in 878, and
eight years later he captured London . He was strong
enough to make a treat y with the Vikings.
FRANCE
Shetland
Islands
~ !
~ areas under
Vikingcontrol
o 200 km
Westminster, which were places of learning and
education. These monasteries t rained the men who
could read and write, so that they had the necessary
skills for the growth of royal and Church autho rity.
The king who made most use of the Church was
Alfred, the great king who ruled Wessex from 871-
899. He used the Iirerare men of rhe Church to
help esrablish a system of law, to educate the
people and to write down important matters. He
started the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the most
important source, toge ther wit h Bede's Ecclesiastical
History of the Englis h People, for understanding the
period.
During the next hundred years, laws were made on
a large number of matte rs. By the eleventh cent ury
royal aut hor ity probably went wider and deeper in
England tha n in any other European country.
This process gave power int o the hands of those
who could read and write, and in this way class
divisions were increased. The power of landlords,
who had been given land by the king, was increased
because the ir names were written down. Peasant s,
who could neither read nor write, could lose their
tradit ional rights to their land, because their right s
were not registered.
The Anglo-Saxon kings also preferred the Roman
Church to the Celt ic Church for economic reasons.
Villages and towns grew around the monasteries
and increased local trade. Many bishops and monks
in England were from the Franki sh lands (France
and Germany) and elsewhere. They were invit ed by
English rulers who wished to benefit from closer
Church and economic contact with Europe. Most
of these bishops and mon ks seem to have come
from churches or monasteries along Europe's vital
trade routes. In this way close contact with many
parts of Europe was encouraged. In addit ion they all
used Lat in, the written language of Rome, and this
encouraged English trade with the cont inent.
Increased literacy itself helped trade. Anglo-Saxon
England became well known in Europe for its
exports of wooll en goods, cheese, hunting dogs,
pottery and meta l goods. It imported wine, fi sh,
pepper, jewellery and wheel-made pottery.
TheViking invasions andthe areas they broughr under their control.
15
An Illustr ated Histor y of Britai n
..
Viking rule was recognised in the east and nort h of
England. It was called the Danc law, the land where
the law of the Danes ruled. In the rest of the
country Alfr ed was recognised as king. During his
struggle against the Danes, he had built walled
set tlements to keep them out. These were called
burghs. They became prosperous market towns, and
the word, now usuall y spelt borough. is one of the
commonest endings to place names, as well as the
name of the unit of municipal or [own
administrat ion today.
Who should be king?
By 950 England seemed rich and peaceful again
after the troub les of the Viking invasion, But soon
afterwards the Dan ish Vikings started raidin g
westwards. The Saxon king, Eth elrcd, decided to
r ay the Vikings to stay away. To find the money he
set a tax on all his people, called Oanegeld, or
" Danish mon ey". It was the beginning of a regular
tax system of the people whic h would provide the
money for armies. The effects of this tax were most
heavily felt by the ordina ry villagers, because they
had to provide enough money for their village
landlord to r ay Dancgcld.
16
Tne 5kn)' of rite battle uf H(ljting5 and the
Norman Conque5t of Saxon England i5
told in rite Bayeux tape5tTy cartoon.
"Harold rite king is killed" $(1)'5 rite
Luin u.'l'iting, and beneath if 5WruU Cl
manwith an arrow in hi5 eye, belielled
to beKing Harold. In rite PiCU4fC 5triP
beluu, [ne main scene, men ate seen
sfealingl ~ clothing fromtne dead and
UJOunded, a common prccnce on
baukfield.s through rite cenumes.
The05eberg Viking 5hip, made in
about AD BOO. U'(l5 21 metres long and
carried about 35 men. Although thi5
particular 5hip U'(l5 probably onlywed
along rite COc1n, 5hips of5imilar size
uere used to invade Britain. Tneir
de5ign Wt1$ brilliant. When an exact
copy of 5imilar5hip was usedto CT055
rite Aflantic to America in 1893, ifS
captain U'TOfe. "!hefines! merchant
ships of ourda)' ..• MlIe practically
thesome type of lxJuom as rite Viking
5hip5.:'
When Erhelred died Cnut (or Ca nure), the leader
of the Dani sh Vikings, controlled much of
England . He became king for the simple reason
th at the royal council, the Wiran, and everyone
else, feared disorder. Rule by a Danish king was far
better than rule by no one at all. Cnut died in
1035, and his son died shor tly after, in 1040. The
Witan chose Edward, one of Saxon Erhe lred's sons,
to he king.
Edward, known as "the Confessor". was more
interested in the Church than in kingshi p. Church
building had been going on for ove r a century. and
he encou raged it. By the time Edward died there
was a church in almost every village. The patt ern of
the English village, wit h its manor house and
church, dates from this t ime. Edward star ted a new
church flt for Cl king at Westmin ster, just out side
the city of Lond on . In fact Westlllinster Abbey was
a Norman , not a Saxon building, because he had
spent almost all his life in Nor mandy, and his
mot her was a daughter of the duke of Normandy.
As thei r name suggests, the Normans were people
from the nort h, They were the ch ildren and
grandchi ldren of Vikings who had captured. and
set tled in. nort hern France, They had soon become
2 The Saxon invasion
French in their language and Christian in their
religion . But t hey wer e st ill well known for the ir
fi ghti ng skills.
Edward on ly lived unt il 1066, when he di ed
without an obvious heir. Th e quest ion of who
should follow him as king was one of the most
important in English hi story. Edward had brought
many Normans to his English court from France.
These Norrnans were not liked by the more
powerful Saxon nohles, part icularly by the most
powerful family of Wessex, the Godwi nso ns. It was
a Godwi nson , Har old, who m the \Vi tan chose to
be the next king of England. Harold had already
shown hi s bravery and abil ity. He had no royal
blood, but he seemed a good choice for the throne
of England.
Harold's right to the English throne was challenged
by Duke Will iam of Nor mandy. Wi ll iam had two
claims to the English throne . Hi s first claim was
that King Edward had promi sed it to hi m. The
second cl aim was that Harold, who had visited
Wil liam in 1064 or 1065, had promised William
that he, Harol d, wou ld not try to take t he t hrone
for himself. Harol d di d not de ny this second claim,
but said that he had been force d to make th e
promi se. and that because it was made unwilli ngly
he was not tied by it.
Harold was faced by two dan ger s, one in th e sout h
and one in th e nor th. T he Dani sh Viki ngs had not
given up th eir cl aim to the English t hrone. In 1066
Harold had to march north into Yorkshire to defeat
t he Danes. No soone r had he defeated t he m t ha n
he learn t that Wi lliam had lan ded in England wit h
an army. His men were tired. hut they had no time
to rest . They ma rched south as fast as possib le.
Harold dec ided not to wait for the whole Saxon
army. the h'nl. ro gathe r because William's army
was small. He t ho ugh t he could beat t he m wi t h t he
men who h,h..1 don e so well against the Danes.
However, the Norman so ldiers were bet ter armed,
better organi sed, and were mount ed on horses. If he
had waited , Haroid migh t have won. But he was
defeat ed and ki lled in battl e near Hastings.
Willi am marched to London, whi ch qu ick ly gave
in whe n he began to burn vi llages outside t he city.
He was crowne d king of Eng land in Edward's new
churc h of West minster Abbey on Christmas Day,
1066. A new period had begun,
17
3 The Celtic kingdoms
Wales · Ireland · Scotland
England has always played the most powerful part
in the history of the British Isles. However, the
orhe r three countries, Wa les, Ireland and Scotland,
have a different history. Unt il recentl y few
histori ans looked at British history exce pt from an
English point of view. But the stor ies of Wa les,
Ireland and Sco tland are also important, because
the ir people st ill feel different from the Anglo-
Saxon English. The experience of the Welsh, Irish
and Scots helps to explain the feel ing they have
today.
Wales
By th e eight h century most of the Celt s had been
dri ven int o the Welsh peninsula. They were kept
out of England by Offa's Dyke, the huge eart h wall
built in AD 779. These Cel ts, called Wel sh by the
Anglo-Saxons, called themselves cymr y, "fellow
countrymen".
Because Wa les is a mountainous country, the cymry
could only live in the crowded valleys. The rest of
th e land was rocky and too poor for anything
except keeping animals. For thi s reason the
population remained small. It on ly grew to ove r
half a million in the eighteent h century. Life was
hard and so was the behaviour of the people.
Slavery was common, as it had been all throu gh
Celt ic Britain.
Soc iety was based on family groupings, each of
which owned one or more village or farm
settlement. One by one in each group a strong
leader made h imself king. These men must have
been tribal chiefs to begin with , who later managed
to become overlords over neigh bouring family
groups. Each of these kings tr ied ro conquer the
othe rs, and the idea of a high , or senior, king
developed.
18
~ o ~ s o k m ]
Wales and its Celric kingdoms.
The early kings travelled around th eir kingdoms to
remind the people of their control. They travelled
with their hungry followers and soldiers. The
ordinary peopl e ran away into the hills and woods
when the king's men approac hed their village.
Life was dangerous, treac herous and bloody. In
1043 the king of Glamorgan died of old age. It was
an unusual event, because between 949 and 1066
no less than thirty-five Welsh rulers died violently,
usually killed by a cymr y, a fellow countryman.
In 1039 Gruffydd ap (son of) L1ewelyn was the first
Welsh high king strong enough to rule over all
Wales. He was also the last , and in order to remain
in control he spent almost the whole of his reign
fight ing his ene mies. Like many ot her We lsh rulers,
Gruffvdd was ki lled by a cymr y whil e defending'
Wales against the Saxons. Wel sh kings after him
were able to rule only after the y had promised
loyalty to Edward the Confessor, king of England.
The story of an independent and uni ted Wa les was
over almos t as soon as it had begun.
Ireland
Ireland was never invaded by either the Romans or
the Anglo-Saxons. It was a land of monasteries and
had a fl ouri shing Celt ic culture. As in Wales,
people were known by the family grouping they
belonged ro. Ourside their tr ibe they had no
protect ion and no name of th eir own. They had
only the name of th eir tribe. The kings in thi s
tribal society were chosen by electi on. The idea was
that the strongest man should lead. In fact the
system led to cont inuous cha llenges.
Five kingdoms grew up in Ireland: Ul ster in the
north , Munsrer in the sourhwest , Leinster in the
southeast , Connaught in the west , with Tara as the
seat of the hi gh kings of Ireland.
Christianity came to Ireland in about A D 430. The
beginning of Ireland 's history date s from that time,
because for the first time there were people who
could write down events. The message of
Chri st ianity was spread in Ireland by a British slave,
Parrick, who became the "patron saint" of Ireland.
Christianit y brought wriring, which weakened the
position of the Druids, who depended on memory
and the spoken word. Christian monasteries grew
up, frequen tly along the coast .
Thi s period is often called Ireland's "golden age" .
Invaders were unknown and culture flowered. But ir
is also true that th e five kingdoms were often at
war, each trying to gain advantage over the ot her,
often with great cruel ty.
Ireland's Celtic kingdoms.
TARA
(seat of the
high kings
of Ireland)
3 The Celtic kingdoms
Tht' rtJlHkl w U't.'Tof De"'enish is one fJf (mly «< '(I t!klf still stand(It Celtic
mfl1klSfi(' sifes in UlstCT, lreL:mJ. This one Willbllilt in Ihe fu'(lfthC('T1Ulry
An The ounmce is abol/f Ihree metres <!bot:e ground ktd, ,mJ !k,Ja L:uLkr
t!klt C(luU be pulkd in so t!kuenemies (mM nOl etue-r. This design may well
haw be!.'n infTflJuad after lheVikiT\R raids beganin theninlhcenwry.
19
An Illustrated History of Britai n
This "golden age" suddenly ended with the arrival
of Viking raiders, who stole all that the monasteries
had . Ver y little was left except the stone memorials
that the Vikings could not carry away.
The Vikings, who traded with Constantinop le
(now Istan bul) , Italy, and with central Russia,
brought fresh economi c and polit ical act ion int o
Irish life. Viking raids forced the Irish to unite. In
859 Ireland chose its fi rst hi gh king, but it was not
an effective solut ion because of the quarrels that
took place each t ime a new high king was chosen.
Viking trade led to the first towns and ports. For
the Celts, who had always lived in small
settlements, these were revol utionary. Dublin,
Ireland 's futur e capital, was founded by the Vikings.
As an effecti ve method of rule the high kingship of
Ireland lasted only twel ve years, from 1002 to 1014 ,
whil e Ireland was ruled by Btian Boru. He is st ill
looked back on as Ireland 's greatest ruler. He tried
to create one single Ireland , and encouraged the
growth of organ isation - in the Church, in
admin istration, and in learning.
Brian Boru died in batt le against the Vikings. One
of the fi ve Irish kings, th e king of Leinsrer , fought
on the Vikings' side. Just over a century later
another king of Leinster invit ed the Norrnans of
England to hel p him against his hi gh king. This
gave the Nor mans the excuse they wanted to
enlarge thei r kingdom.
Scotland
As a result of its geography, Scotland has two
different societ ies. In the centre of Scotland
mountains stretch to the far north and across to the
west , beyond which lie many islands. To the east
and to the south the lowland hill s are gentler, and
much of the countryside is like England, rich ,
welcoming and easy to farm. Nort h of the
"Highland Line", as the division between hi ghland
and lowland is called, people stayed tied to their
own family groups. Sout h and east of th is line
society was more easily influenced by the changes
taking place in England.
20
Iona. the wes tern Scottishislandanwhich SrColumba e5lablished his abbey
in AD 563 when he came Ireland. FrQJT\ lanaColumba sent his mi55ianarie5
to bring ChriHUIni[y to the5C0[5. Thepresentcathedralwasbuil! in about
/ 500.
Scotland was populated by four separate groups of
people. The main group, th e Piers, lived mostly in
the nor th and nort heast . They spoke Cel t ic as well
as anothe r, proba bly older, language completely
unconnect ed with any known language today, and
they seem to have been the ear liest inh abitants of
the land. The Piers were different from the Celts
because they inh erited theit rights , th eir names and
property from their mothers, not from their fathers.
The non-Picrish inh abitant s were mainl y Sco ts.
The Scots were Celtic settlers who had started to
move into the western Highl ands from Ireland in
the fourt h cent ury.
In 843 the Pict ish and Scott ish kingdoms were
uni ted under a Sco tt ish king, who could also
probably claim the Pictish th rone through his
mother , in thi s way obeying bot h Scott ish and
Picti sh rules of kingship.
The third group were the Britons, who inh abited
the Lowlands, and had been part of the Romano-
Briti sh world. (The name of th eir kingdom,
St rathclyde, was used again in the county
reorganisation of 1974.) They had probably given
up their old tr ibal way of life bv the sixt h century.
Finally, there were Angles from No rt humbria who
had pushed northwards into the Scott ish Lowlands.
Unity between Piers, Scots and Britons was
achieved for several reasons. The y all shared a
[
0 l 00 km SHETLANO jef
. ; ISLANDS 't Scorland: i r5 earl)' !'e(lple5.
" Go

O RKNEY «'f!i'

<;J;g
Hadrian's Wall
common Celt ic culture, language and background.
Their economy main ly depended on keeping
animals. These animals were owned by the tribe as
a whole, and for this reason land was also held by
tribes, nor by indi vidual people. The common
economic system increased their feeling of
belonging to the same kind of society and the
feeling of difference from the agricultural Lowlands.
The sense of common culture may have been
increased by marri age alliances between tribes. This
idea of common landholding remained strong unt il
the tribes of Scotland, called "clans" , collapsed in
the eighteenth century.
The spread of Celtic Christ ianity also helped to
unite the people. The fi rst Christian mission to
Scotland had come to southwest Scotland in about
AD 400. Later , in 563, Columba, known as the
"Dove of the Church" , came from Ireland.
Through his work both Highl and Scots and Picts
were brought to Christianity. He even, so it is said,
defeate d a monster in Loch Ness, the first mention
of thi s famous creature. By the time of the Synod of
Whi tby in 663 , the Piers, Scots and Britons had all
been brought closer togethe r by Christianity.
The Angles were very different from the Celts.
They had arrived in Britain in family groups, but
they soon began to accept author ity from people
outside their own family. This was partl y due to
3 The Celtic kingdoms
their way of life. Although they kept some animals,
they spent more time growing crops. This meant
that land was held by indi vidual people, each man
working in his own fi eld. Land was distr ibuted for
farming by the local lord. This system encouraged
the Angles of Sco tland to devel op a non -tri bal
system of cont rol, as th e people of England furrher
south were doing. This increased the ir feeling of
difference from the Celtic tr ibal Highlanders furt he r
north.
Finally, as in Ireland and in Wales, foreign invaders
increased the speed of political change. Vikings
attacked the coas tal areas of Scotland, and they
settled on many of the islands, She tland, the
Orkneys, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man
sout hwest of Scotland. In order to resist them, Piers
and Scots fought together against the enemy raiders
and set tlers. Whe n they could not push them out of
the islands and coastal areas, they had to deal with
them politically. At first the Vikings, or
"Norsemen", st ill served th e king of Norway. But
communicat ions with Norway were difficult . Slowly
the earls of Orkney and othe r areas found it easier
to accept the king of Sco ts as the ir ovetlord, rat her
than t he more distant king of Norway.
However, as the Wel sh had also discovered, the
English were a greater danger tha n the Vikings. In
934 the Scots were seriously defeated by a Wessex
anny pushing northwards. The Scots dec ided to
seek the friendship of the English, because of the
likely losses from war. England was obviously
stronger than Scotland but , luckily for the Scots,
bot h the north of England and Scotland were
diffi cul t to control from London . The Scots hoped
that if they were reason ably peaceful the
Sassenac hs, as they called the Saxons (and st ill call
th e English), would leave th em alone.
Sco tland remained a difficult country to rule even
from its capital, Edinburgh. Anyone looking at a
map of Scotland can immediate ly see that control
of the Highlands and islands was a great problem.
Travel was often impossible in wint er, and slow and
difficult in summer. It was easy for a clan chief or
noble to throw off the rule of the king.
21
2Z
\
!
\
\
The early Middle Ages
4 Conquest and feudal rule
The Norman Conquest · Feudalism · Kingship: a famil y business·
Magna Carta and the decline of feudalism
The Norman Conquest
William the Conqueror's coro nat ion did not go as
planned. Whe n the people shouted "God Save the
King" the nervous Norman guards at Westminster
Abbey rhought th ey were going to attack William.
In their fear th ey set fire to nearby houses and rhe
coronation ceremony ended in disorder.
Although Will iam was now crowned king. hi s
conquest had only just begun. and the fight ing
lasted for ano ther five years. There was an Anglo-
Saxon rebellion against the Norrnans every year
unt il 1070. The small Norman army marched from
village to vi llage, destroying places it could not
cont rol. and building forts to guard others. It was a
true army of occupat ion for at least twenty years.
The north was parti cularly hard to control. and the
Norman army had no mercy. When the Saxons
fought back. the Normans burnt. destroyed and
killed. Between Durham and York not a single
house was left standing. and it took a century for
the north to recover.
Few Saxon lords kept the ir lands and those who did
were the very small number who had accept ed
William immed iately. All the others lost
everything. By 1086. twenty years after the arrival
of the Normans, only two of the greater landlords
An(ITgu mt.'JI1 beru't't'n King Henry' 11 L1nJ his archbishop, Thomas Bt"ckt't .
Behind Beeker send am knighrs, probr.lbl)' those who killed him10 pkast'
Henry. Thepie/ure iUustrafes the berueen ChurchandsWleJuring
the early Middle Ages. TheChurch controlled mone:,. land (including room
lIndfelu.l.u esteres}, andmen. As a resl.lr , the kings of England had 10 be
wry careful in their dealings u'irh cht'ChIITCh. Th.>:o Irlt'd 10 pre tenr tiny
mcrecsein Churchpower, andtried to ,If>poinl bishops u·ho U'OlI/J hi: mOTe
lhe kinR rhan 10 [he Becket died because he [rit.'J w pr ew nr
[he kinR fromgaininRmore control 0/ ChllKh affairs.
and only two bishops were Saxon, Willi am gave the
Saxon lands to his Norman nobles, After each
English rebelli on there was more land to give away.
His army included Norman and othe r French land
seekers. Over 4.000 Saxon landl ords were replaced
by 200 Norman ones.
Feudalism
William was careful in the way he gave land to his
nobles. The king of France was less powerful than
many of the great landlords. of whom WilIiam was
the outstanding example. In England. as each new
area of land was captured. Wi lliam gave parts of it
as a reward to his captains. This meant that they
held separate small pieces of land in different part s
of th e count ry so that no nobl e could easily or
quickly gather his fightin g men to rebel. Willi am
only gave some of his nobl es larger estates along the
troublesome borde rs with Wales and Scotland. At
the same t ime he kept enough land for himself to
make sure he was much stronger than his nobles,
Of all the farmland of England he gave half to the
Norman nobles, a quarter to the Church, and kept
a fifth himself. He kept th e Saxon system of
she riffs, and used th ese as a balance to local nobles.
As a result England was different from the rest of
Europe because it had one powerful family, instead
of a large number of powerful nobl es. William, and
the kings after him. thought of England as their
personal property.
William organised his English kingdom according
to the feudal system which had already begun to
develop in England before his arrival. The word
23
An Illustrated Hisrorv of Britain
Casrle Rising in Norfolk, afine exo.mple of !hes!One,built keeps the No-mens built in rhe
tU'ft/fth cenrury. These replaced !heearlier Ncmnan "mcne andbailey"cudes. u:hich were earrh
mounds SUTTOtmded by awooden fena or paIfuade. A s!One·lrnilr keep of !heIU'U' kindWd5
extremel)' difficult to capture, except by surprise . Keeps of this kindhad a weU, fTe5h
water far a long siege.
"feudalism" comes from the Frenc h word [eu, whi ch
the Normans used to refer to land held in return for
dut y or service to a lord. The basis of feudal society
was the holding of land, and its main purpose was
economic. The central idea was that all land was
owned by the king but it was held by others. called
"vassals", in return for services and goods. The king
gave large estates to his main nobles in return for a
promise to serve him in war for up to forty days.
The nobles also had to give hi m part of the produce
of the land. The greater nobles gave part of their
lands to lesser nobles, knight s. and other
"freemen". Some freemen paid for the land by
doing mi lirary service. while others paid rent. The
noble kept "serfs" to work on his own land. These
were not free to leave the estate, and were often
little better than slaves.
The re were two basic principles to feudalism: every
man had a lord. and every lord had land, The king
was connected through thi s "chain" of peopl e to
the lowest man in the country. At each level a man
had to promise loyalty and service to his lord. This
promise was usuall y made with the lord sitting on
his chair and his vassal kneel ing before him, his
hands placed between those of his lord. This was
24
The greashall in Casrle Headingham, built in 1140. gil'f!S an
idea of !heinside ofa Normancasde. Thefloor was covered
wirh rushes or reeds, cur from a nearby marsh or u.!edand
area. The walls were decorated withU!OlIt't1 woollen
embroidered hangi"Ks. for which England ucs famou.s. !he
fumilUre is of a muchlarer dare. 1n Norman times there U'a5
probably a large btd simple table and chair ffTf rhelord of rhe
castle. Others Sflf on benches, or mighr haw stoodfor meals.
A knighr pays homllge. The
nobilil) of Britain srillpay homlIge UJ lhe
sOl'tTeign during lhecoronation ceremony, ElItT
since rheMiddle Ages, wesr European Chrisrians
halOf' wed !hefeudal homage pcsmon u,hen
praying. a reminder of their relatiaruhip UJ God,
rheir lord andprceectc-.
called " homage" , and has remained parr of the
coronation ce remony of British kings and queens
unti l now. O n the othe r han d, each lord had
responsibilities to his vassals. He had to give them
land and protec tion.
When a nobl e died hi s son usually rook over his
estate. But first he had to receive permission from
the king and make a spec ial payment. If he was still
a child t he king wou ld often ta ke t he produce of
the esta te un ti l the boy was old eno ugh to look
after t he estate himsel f. In th is way the king could
benefi t from the death of a noble. If all the nob le's
family died th e land went back to the king, who
would be expected to give it to anothe r deserving
noble. But the ki ng often kep t th e land for some
years. using its wealth. before giving it to anot her
noble.
If t he king di ll not give t he nobles land they would
not fig ht for him. Between 1066 and the mid -
fourteenth ce ntury there were only thirty years of
complete peace . So feudal duties were extremely
important. The king had to make sure he had
enough satisfied nobl es who would be wi ll ing to
tighr for h im.
William gave our land all over England to hi s
nob les, By 1086 he wanted to kn ow exac tly who
owned whic h piece of land. and how much it was
worth. He needed this information so rhar he could
plan his eco no my. find our how much was produced
and how much he co uld ask in tax. He therefore
sent a team of peop le all through England to make
a complete economic survey. His men asked all
kinds of questions at eac h set tlement: How much
land was there ? \'(fho own ed it ? How much was it
worth? How many famil ies, ploughs and sheep were
there? And so on. This survey was the only one of
its kind in Europe. Not surprisingly, it was most
unpopular wit h t he people, because th ey felt th ey
could not escape from its findings. It so reminded
them of the paint ings of the Day of Judgement, or
"doom". on the walls of thei r churches that they
called it t he "Domesday" Book. T he na me stuck.
The Domesday Book still ex ists, and gives us an
exrraordi na rv amoun t of info rrna rion about England
at this rime.
4 Conquest and feudal rule
Kingship: a famil y business
To under stand t he idea of kingship and lordship in
the early Middle Ages it is important to realise t hat
at this time ther e was little or no idea of
nationalism. William controlled two large areas:
Nor ma ndy, whi ch he had been given by hi s fath er ,
and England, wh ich he had won in war. Bot h were
personal possessions, and it did not matter to the
rul ers th at t he ordinary people of one place were
English wh ile t hose of anot her were French. To
W illiam t he import an t difference between
Nor ma ndy and England was t ha t as duke of
Norma ndy he had to recogn ise t he king of Fran ce
as hi s lord, wher eas in England he was king wit h no
lord above him.
When Wi lliam died, in 1087, he left t he Duchy of
Norma ndy to h is cider son, Robert. He gave
England to hi s second son , William, known as
"Rufus" (Lat in for red) because of hi s red hai r and
red face. When Roberr went to fight th e Muslims in
th e Hol y Lan d, he left William 11 (Rufus) in charge
of Norma ndy. After all, th e manageme nt of
Normandy and England was a famil y business.
Wi ll iam Rufus died in a hunting acc iden t in 1100 ,
shot dead hI' an arrow. He had not marri ed, and
therefore had no son to take the crown. At the
t ime of Willi am's death, Roberr was on hi s way
home to Normandy from t he Hol y Lan d. Their
younger brother. Henry. knew that if he wanted
the English crown he wou ld have to act very
quickly. He had been wi th Will iam at the time of
t he acc ident . He rode to Winchester and took
charge of the king's treasury. He then rode to
Westminster. where he was crowned king three
da ys later. Roberr was very an gry and prepa red to
invade. Blit it rook him a year to organise an army.
The Norma n nohles in England had to choose
between Henry and Roher r. This was not easy
because most of them held land in Normandy too .
In the end they chose Henry because he was in
London, with the crown already on his head.
Robcrr's invasion was a failure and he acce pted
payment to return to Normandy. But Henry wanted
more. He knew t ha t many of his nobles would
willingly follow him to Normandy so that they
25
An Illustrated History of Britain
D
tands inherited rrom his
father, Geotlrey
Plantagenet. count
ot AnJOu
•
lands inherited from jus
mother, Queen Matllda
01England
O
landsgaInedby his
marriagetoEleanor
01AqUlta,ne
O
lands gained by hISson
Geollrey's marriage to
constarce 01Bnttany
O
landsbelongIngto, and
dlrecltyruledby, the
Frenchking
O
landswhich recognised
theFrench kIng
as overlord
- boundary orHenry u's
Frenchlands
Hemy 1/ '$ clllpire.
could win back thei r Nor man lands. In 11 06 Henry
invaded Normandy and captured Rober r.
Nor mandy and England were reunited under one
ruler.
Henry l's most important aim was to pass on both
Nor mandy and England to his successor. He spent
the rest of his life fight ing tn keep Normandy from
other French nobles who tr ied to take it. But in
1120 Henry's only son was drowned at sea.
During the next fifteen years Henry hoped for
ano the r son but fi nall y accep ted tha t his daughter,
Marilda, would follow him. Henry had married
Marilda to anot her great noble in France, Geoffrey
Plantagenet , Geoffrey was heir to Anjou, a large
and important area southwest of Normandy. Henry
hoped tha t the family lands would be made larger
by this marr iage. He made all the nobles promise to
acce pt Matilda when he died. But then Henry
himself qua rrelled publicly with Mari lda's husband ,
and died soon after. This left the succession in
question .
26
At the t ime both the possible heirs to Henry were
on their own estates. Maril da was with her husband
in Anjou and Henry's nephew. Srephen of Blois,
was in Boul ogne, only a day's journey by sea from
England . As Henry had done before him, Stephen
raced to England to cl aim the crown. Al so as
before, the nobles in England had to choose
between Stcphen, who was in England, and
Mari lda. who had quarrelled with her fathe r and
who was st ill in France. Most chose Srephc n, who
seems to have been good at fi ghti ng but littl e else.
He was described at the time as "of outstanding
skill in arms, but in othe r things almost an idiot ,
except that he was more incl ined towards evil. "
Only a few nobles supported Mat ilda's claim.
Mar ilda invaded England four years later . Her fight
with Stephen led to a terrible civil war in which
vill ages were destroyed and many people we re
killed. Neit her side could win, and finally in 11 53
Marilda and Srephcn agreed tha t St ephen could
keep the throne but only if Marilda' s son, Henry,
could succeed him. Fortunatel v for England,
Srephen died the following year, and th e family
possessions of England and the lands in France were
united under a king accepted by everyone. It took
years for England to recover from the civil war. As
someone wrote at the time, "For nineteen long
wint ers, God and his angels slept. " This kind of
disorder and destruction was common in Europe,
but it was shocking in England beca use people were
used to the rule of law and order.
Henry 1I was the fi rst unquestioned ruler of the
English throne for a hundred years. He destroyed
the castles which many nobles had built without
royal permission during Srephen's reign, and made
sure that they lived in manor houses that were
undefend ed. The manor again became the centre of
local life and administrat ion.
Henr y 1I was ruler of far more land than any
previous king. As lord of Anjou he added his
fat her's lands to the fami ly empire. After his
marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine he also ruled the
lands south of Anjou. Henry ll 's empi re stretched
from the Scott ish border to th e Pyrenees.
4 Conquest and feudal rule
FourkJnRs of the early Middle
Ages: (top row) Henry fI, Richard
1, (bonorn TOW) John mul Henry
111. Richard's shieldcarries the
beulge of the Englishkings. The
fhree goldlilms (called "leupards"
in heraldic language) on a red field
stillform fWO of fhe four
"qlUlrrers" of the Royal Standard
or shield wJay.
England provided most of Henry' s wealth, but the
heart of his empire lay in Anjou. And although
Henry recogni sed the king of France as the overlord
of all his French lands, he actually controlled a
greater area tha n the king of France. Many of
Henry's nobles held land on both sides of the
English channel.
However, Henr y quarrelled with his beautiful and
powerful wife, and his sons, Richard and John, took
Eleanor' s side. It may seem surprising that Richard
and Joh n fought against their own father. But in
fact they were doi ng their dut y to the king of
France, their feudal ove rlord, in payment for the
lands they held from him. In 11 89 Henry died a
broken man, disappointed and defeated by his sons
and by the French king.
Henry was followed by his rebell ious son, Richard.
Richard I has always been one of England' s most
popular kings, although he spent hardl y any t ime in
England . He was brave, and a good soldier, but his
nickname Coeur de Lion, " lionheart ", shows tha t
his culture, like that of the kings before him, was
French . Richard was ever yone's idea of the perfect
feuda l king. He went to the Holy Land to make war
on the Muslims and he fought with skill, courage
and honour.
On his way back from the Holy Land Richard was
captured by the duke of Austr ia, with whom he had
quarrelled in Jerusalem. The duke demanded money
before he would let him go, and it took two years
for England to pay. Shortly after, in 1199, Richard
was killed in France. He had spent no more tha n
four or five years in th e count ry of which he was
king. When he died the French king took over
parts of Richard's French lands to rule himself.
27
An Illustrated History of Britain
Richard had no son, and he was followed by his
brother, John. John had already made himself
unpopular with the three most important groups of
people, the nobles, the mercha nt s and the Church.
John was unpopular mainl y because he was greedy.
The feudal lords in England had always run rheir
own law courts and profited from the fines paid by
those brought to court. But John took many cases
out of thei r courts and tried them in the king's
courts, taking the mone y for himself.
It was nor mal for a feudal lord to make a payment
to the king when his daughter was marri ed, but
John asked for more than was the custom. In the
same way, whe n a noble died, his son had to pay
money before he could inherit his fathe r's land. In
order to enlarge his own income, John increased
the amount they had to pay. In other cases when a
noble died without a son, it was normal for the land
to be passed on ro. anorher noble family. Joh n kept
the land for a long time, to benefit from its wealth.
He did the same with the bishoprics. As for th e
merchants and towns, he taxed them at a hi gher
level than ever before .
In 1204 King Joh n became even more unpopular
with his nobles. The French king invaded
Normandy and the English nobles lost their lands
there. John had failed to ca rry out his duty to the m
as duke of Normandy. He had taken their money
but he had not protect ed their land.
In 1209 John quarrelled with the pope ove r who
should be Arc hbishop of Canterbury. John was in a
weak posit ion in England and the pope knew it.
The pope called on the king of France to invade
England, and closed every church in the country.
At a time when most people believed that without
the Church they would go to hell , thi s was a very
serious matt er. In 1214 John gave in, and accept ed
the pope's choice of archbishop.
In 1215 John hoped to recapture Normandy. He
called on his lords to fi ght for him, but they no
longer truste d hi m. They marched to London ,
where they were joined by angry merchant s.
Outside London at Runnymede, a few miles up the
river. John was forced to sign a new agree me nt.
28
Magna Carta and the decline of
feudalism
Thi s new agreemen t was known as "Magna Carta" ,
the Great Charter, and was an important symbol of
poli tical freedom. The king promi sed all "freemen"
protect ion from his officers, and the right to a fai r
and legal trial. At the time perhaps less than one
quarter of the English were "free rne n". Most were
not free, and were serfs or littl e bett er. Hundreds of
years lat er, Magna Carta was used by Parl iament to
protect itself from a powerful king. In fact Magna
Carta gave no real freedom to the majori ty of
peopl e in England . The nobles who wrote it and
forced King John to sign it had no such th ing in
mind. They had one main aim: to make sure John
did not go beyond his rights as feudal lord.
Magna Carta marks a clear stage in the collapse of
English feudalism. Feudal society was based on links
bet ween lord and vassal. At Runnvmede the nobles
were not acting as vassals but as a class. They
established a committee of twenty-four lords to
make sure John kept his promi ses. That was not a
"feudal" thing to do. In addit ion, th e nobles were
acting in co-operation with the merchant cl ass of
towns.
The nobles did not allow John's successors to forget
this charter and its promises. Every king recogni sed
Magna Carta, unt il the Middle Ages ended in
disorder and a new kind of monarchy came into
being in the sixteenth century.
There were other small signs that feudalism was
changing. When the king went to war he had the
right to forty days' fi ght ing service from each of his
lords. But forty days were not long enough for
fighting a war in France. The nobles refused to fi ght
for lon ger , so the king was forced to pay soldiers to
fi ght for him. (They were called "paid fighters" ,
snUdari"s, a Latin word from which the word
"soldier" comes. ) At the same time many lords
preferred their vassals to pay them in money rather
than in services. Vassals were gradually beginning
to change into tenants. Feudalism. the use of land
in return for service. was beginning to weaken . But
it took anot her three hundred years before it
disappeared completely.
5 The power of the kings of England
Church and state' The beginnings of Parliament· Dealing with the
Celts
Church and state
John 's reign also marked the end of the long
struggle between Church and state in England.
This had begun in 1066 when the pope claimed
that Wi lliam had promised to accept him as his
feudal lord. William refused to accept this claim.
He had created Norman bishops and given them
land on condition that they paid homage to him.
As a result it was not clea r whethe r the bishops
should obey the Church or the king. Those kings
and popes who wished to avoid conflict left the
matter alone. But some kings and popes wanted to
increase the ir authority. In such ci rcumstances
trouble could not be avo ided.
The struggle was for bot h power and money. During
the eleventh and twelfth centuries the Church
wanted the kings of Europe to accept its aut hority
over both spiritual and earthly affairs, and argued
that even kings were answerable to God. Kings, on
the other hand, chose as bisho ps men who would
be loyal to them.
The first serious quarrel was between William Rufus
and Anselm, the man he had made Archb ishop of
Cante rbury. Anselm, with several other bishops ,
fearing the king, had escaped from England . After
William's death Anselm refused to do homage to
William's successor , Henry I. Henry, meanwhile,
had created several new bishops but they had no
spiritual authority without the blessing of the
archbishop. This left the king in a difficul t position .
It took seven years to settle the disagreement.
Finally the king agreed tha t only the Church could
create bishops. But in retu rn the Church agreed
that bishops would pay ho mage to the king for the
lands owned by their bishoprics. In pract ice the
wishes of the king in the appointment of bishops
remai ned important. But after Anselrn's deat h
Henr y managed to delay the appoint ment of a new
archbishop for fi ve years whi le he benefited from
the wealth of Canterbury. The struggle between
Church and state cont inued.
The crisis came when Henry Il' s friend Thomas
Becket was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in
1162. Henr y hoped that Thomas would hel p him
bring the Church more under his control. At fi rst
Becket refused, and then he gave in. Later he
changed his mind again and ran away to France,
and it seemed as if Henry had won. But in 1170
Becker returned to England determined to resist the
king. Henry was very angry, and four knights who
heard hi m speak out went to Canterbury to murder
Becker. They killed hi m in the holiest place in the
cat hedral, on the altar steps .
All Christ ian Europe was shocked, and Thomas
Becket became a saint of the Church. For hundreds
of years afterwards people not only from England
but also from Europe travelled to Canterbury to
pray at Becket 's grave. Henr y was forced to ask the
pope's forgiveness. He also allowed himself to be
whipped by monks. The pope used the event to
take back some of the Church's privileges. But
Henry \I could have lost much more tha n he did.
Luckil y for Henry, the nobles were also invol ved in
the argument , and Henr y had the nobles on his
side. Usually the Church preferred to suppor t the
king against th e nobl es, but expected to be
rewarded for its support . King John's mistake fort y
years later was to upset both Church and nobles at
the same time.
29
An Illustrated History of Britain
The beginnings of Parliament
King John had signed Magna Ca rta unwillingly,
and it qui ckl y became cleat that he was not going
to keep to the agreement . The nobles rebelled and
soon pushed John out of the southeast. But civil
war was avoided because John died suddenly in
1216.
Joh n's son, Henry Ill , was only nine years old.
During the first sixteen years as king he was under
the control of powerful nobles, and tied by Magna
Ca rta.
Henry was finall y able to rule for himself at the
age of twenty-five. It was understandable that he
wanted to be completely independent of the people
who had controlled his life for so long. He spen t his
time with foreign friends, and became involved in
expensive wars supporting the pope in Sicily and
also in France.
Henry's heavy spending and hi s foreign adv isers
upset the nob les, Once again they acted as a class,
under the leadership of Simon de Monr forr , earl of
Leicester. In 1258 they took over the government
and electe d a council of nobles. De Montfort called
it a parliament, or parlement, a French word meaning
a "discussion meet ing". This "parliament" took
control of the treasury and forced Henry to get rid
of his foreign adv isers. The nohles were supported
by the town s, which wished to be free of Henry's
heavy taxes.
But some of the nobles did not support the
revolutionary new council, and remained loyal to
Henry. With their hel p Henry was finally able to
defeat and kill Simon de Monrfort in 1265. Once
again he had full royal aut hor ity, although he was
careful to acce pt the balance which de Mon tfort
had created between king and nobl es, Whe n Henry
died in 1272 his son Edward I took the thro ne
without quest ion.
Edward I's parliament Edward sits in
front of his nobles, bishops and shire
knights. Onhis right sits Alexander,
kingof Scots, and on his left is
Uewelyn, Prince of Wales. It is
unlikely eiMe\'t'T sat in Edward's
parliament, bur he liked to think of
them as under his authority. Be,ond
Alexander andUewelynsit [he
archbishops of CanleTbury and York,
and [heTe are more bishops on the left
of the picture, a reminder of the
political andeconomicstrength of the
Churchosrhis time. Inthe centre are
wool5acks, symbolic of England's
wealth.
30
Edward I brought togethe r the fi rst real parliament .
Simon de Monrforr's council had been called a
parl iament, but it incl uded on ly nobles, It hall been
able to make statutes, or written laws, and it had
been able to make poli tical decisions. However , the
lords were less able to provide the king with money,
except what they had agreed to pay hi m for the
lands they held under feuda l arrangement . In the
days of Henry I ( 1100- 35),85 per cent of the
king's income had come from the land. By 127Z
income from th e land was less than 40 per cent of
the royal income. The king could only raise the rest
by taxation. Since the rules of feudalism did not
include taxati on, taxes could only be raised wit h
the agreement of those wealthy enough to be taxed .
Several kings had made arrangements for taxation
before, but Edward I was the first to create a
"representative institution" which could provide
the money he needed. This institution became the
House of Commons. Unlike the House of Lords it
conta ined a mi xture of "gentry" (knights and other
wealthy freemen from the shires) and merchants
from the towns. These were the two broad classes of
people who produced and controlled England's
wealth.
In 1275 Edward I commanded each shire and each
town (or borough) to send two representatives to
his parliame nt . These "commoners" would have
stayed away if they could, to avo id giving Edward
money. But few dared risk Edward' s anger. They
became unwi lling representatives of their local
community. This, rather than Magna Cart a, was
the beginning of the idea that th ere should be "no
taxation without representation". later claimed by
the American colonists of the eighteenth century.
In other parts of Europe , similar "pa rliament s" kept
all the gentry separate from the commoners.
England was special because the House of
Commons contai ned a mixture of gentry belonging
to the feudal ruling class and merchants and
freemen who did not. The co-operation of these
groups, through the House of Commons, became
important to Britain's later political and social
develop ment. During the 150 years following
Edward' s death the agreement of the Commons
5 The power of the kings of England
Hc1TlechUlSlle. one of several castles bui/l fry Eduoard 1inorder W conrro!
the north anduesr of Wales. Themountainous COUnfry of Snoudonia in the
background U'(IS a place of safety for the Welshrebels. While it ucs
exrremely chfficuI! for Edward re reach the rebels in thesemountains. it was
alsoimpossible forsuch rebels everto capture castles as strong as Harlech.
These hugely expensivecastles were sostrong that tht'y persuaded the Welsh
rhat anorht'T rising against Englishrule was unlikely 10 succeed.
became nece ssary for the making of all statutes, and
all special taxat ion additional to regular taxes.
Dealing with the Celts
Edward I was less interested in winning back part s
of France than in bringing the rest of Britain under
his control.
William I had allowed his lords to win land by
conquest in Wales. These Nonnans slowly
extended their control up the Wel sh river valleys
and by the beginning of the twelfth century much
of Wales was held by them. The y built castles as
they went forward, and mixed with and married the
Wel sh during the eleventh, twelfth and thi rteent h
centuries. A new class grew up, a mixture of the
Nor man and Welsh rulers, who spoke Norman
French and Welsh, but not English. They all
became vassals of the English king.
31
An Illustrated History of Britain
The only Wel sh who were at all free from English
rule lived around Snowdon, the wild mounta ino us
area of north Wa les. They were led by Llewelyn ap
Gruffvdd, pr ince of Gwynedd, who tr ied to become
independent of the English. Edward was determined
m defeat him and bring Wa les completely under his
control. In 1282 Llewelyn was captured and killed.
Edward then began a programme of castle building
whi ch was extreme ly expensive and took many
years to complete.
In 1284 Edwnrd uni ted west Wales with England,
bringing the English county system to the newly
conquered lands. But he did not interfere with the
areas th e Nor mans had conquered earlier on the
English-Welsh border, because th is would have led
to trouble wit h his nobles.
The English considered that Wales had become
part of England for all pract ical purposes. If the
Welsh wanted a prince , they could have one. At a
public ceremony at Caernarfon Edward I made his
own baby son (later Edward 11 ) Prince of Wales.
From that ti me the eldest son of the ruling king or
queen has usuall y been made Prince of Wales.
Ireland had been conquered by Norman lords in
11 69. They had littl e difficulty in defeating the
Irish kings and tribes. Henry 11 , afraid that his lords
mi ght become too independen t, went to Ireland
himself. He forced th e Irish chiefs and Nor man
lords m accept his lordship. He did so with the
authority of the pope, who hoped m bring th e Irish
Celt ic Church under his own control.
Henry 11 made Dublin , the old Viking town , the
capital of his new colony. Much of western Ireland
remained in the hands of Irish chiefs, whi le
Norman lords governed most of the east. Edward I
took as much money and as many men as he could
for his wars against the We lsh and Sco ts. As a
result Ireland was drained of its wealth. By 1318 it
was able to provide the English king with only
one- third of rhe amount it had been able m give in
1272. The Nor man nobles and Irish chiefs quietly
avoided English aut hor ity as much as possible. As a
result , the English Crown only controlled Dublin
and a small area around it, known as "the Pale".
32
The Irish chiefs continued to live as th ey always
had done, moving from place to place, and eat ing
out of doors, a habit they only gave up in the
sixteent h century. The Anglo-lrish lords, on th e
other hand, built strong stone castles, as the y had
done in Wa les. But they also became almost
completely independent from the English Crown,
and some became "more Irish tha n the Irish".
In Scotland thi ngs were very different . Although
Scott ish kings had somet imes accept ed the English
king as the ir "overlord", they were much stronger
than the many We lsh kings had been . By the
eleventh century there was only one king of Scots ,
and he ruled over all the sout h and east of Scot -
land. Only a few areas of the western coas t were
st ill completely independ ent and these all came
under th e king's control during the twelfth and
thi rteenth centuries. In Ireland and Wales Nor man
knights were strong enough to fight local chiefs on
th eir own. But only the English king with a large
army could hope to defeat the Scots. Most English
kings did not not even try, but Edward I was different.
The Sco tt ish kings were closely connected with
England. Since Saxon times, marriages had
frequently taken place betwee n the Scott ish and
English royal families. At the same t ime, in order
m establ ish strong government, the Scott ish kings
offered land to Norman kni ghts from England in
return for their loyal ty. Scotland followed England
in creat ing a feudal state. On the whole Cel tic
society accepted thi s, probably because the
Nor mans married into local Celt ic noble fami lies.
The feudal system, however, did not develop in the
Highl ands, where the tribal "clan" system
cont inued. Some Scottish kings held land in
England, just as English kings held lands in France.
And in exactly the same way they did homage,
promising loyalty m th e English king for that land.
In 1290 a crisis took place over the succession m
the Scott ish throne . The re were thirteen possible
heir s. Among these the most likel y m succeed were
John de Ball iol and Robert Bruce, both Nor man-
Scott ish knights. In order to avoid civil war the
Scott ish nobl es invited Edward I m settle th e
matt er.
Edward had already shown interest in joining
Scotland to his kingdom. In 1286 he had arranged
for his own son to marry Margaret, the heir to the
Scottish throne, but she had died in a shipwreck.
Now he had anot her cha nce. He told bot h men
that they must do homage to him, and so accept his
overlordship, before he would help settle the
question . He then invaded Sco tland and put one of
them, John de Ball iol , on th e Scottish throne .
De Balliol' s four years as king were not happy. First ,
Edward made him provide money and troops for
the English army and the Scottish nob les rebelled.
Then Edward invaded Scotland again, and captured
all the main Scottish castles. During the invasion
Edward stole th e sacred Stone of Dest iny from
Scone Abbey on which , so the legend said, all
Scott ish kings must sit. Edward believed th at
without the Stone , any Sco tt ish coro nat ion would
be mean ingless, and tha t hi s own possession of the
Stone would persuade the Scots to accept hi m as
king. However, neither he nor his successors
became kings of Scots, and the Scott ish kings
managed perfectly well without it .
Edward' s treatment of the Scots created a popular
resistanc e movement . At fi rst it was led by William
Wallace, a Norman-Scott ish kni ght. But after one
victory against an English army, Wallace's "people's
army" was itself destroyed by Edward in 1297. The
Scots had formed rings of spearmen which stood
fi rm against the English cavalry attacks, but
Edward's Wel sh longbowmen broke the Scotti sh
formations, and the cavalry then charged down on
them.
It seemed as if Edward had won after all. He
capt ured Wallace and executed hi m, putt ing his
head on a pole on London Bridge. Edward tried to
make Scotland a part of England , as he had done
with Wales. Some Sco tt ish nobles accepted him,
but the peopl e refused to be ruled by the English
king. Scottish nati onalism was born on the day
Wallace died.
A new leader took up th e struggle. This was Robert
Bruce, who had competed with John de Balliol for
the th rone. He was able to raise an army and defeat
the English army in Scotland. Edward I gathe red
5 The power of the kings of England
ano the r great army and marched against Robert
Bruce, bur he died on the way north in 1307. On
Edward' s grave were written the words "Edward, the
Hammer of the Scots" . He had intended to
hammer th em into the ground and dest roy them,
but in fact he had hammered them into a nation .
After his death his son, Edward 11 , turned back to
England . Bruce had time to defeat his Scottish
enemies, and make himself accepted as king of the
Scots. He the n began to win back the castles st ill
held by the English. Whe n Edward 11 invaded
Scotland in 1314 in an effort to help the last
English-held castles, Bruce destroyed his army at
Bannockburn, near St irling. Six years later, in
1320, the Scots clergy meeti ng at Arbroarh wrote
to th e pope in Rome to tell him that they would
never accept English authority: "for as long as even
one hundred of us remain alive, we will neve r
consent to subject ourselves to the domi nion of the
English."
Edward "s cororuttion dUlir. TheScouish Stone of Destiny which Edward
cookfrum Scone Abbeyis under the seat. a s)'mbo/ of Engkmd's desire 10
ruleSc()/kma. On eilher . ~ i J e of thethrone sl£lnd the symbolic sfate sword and
shield of Eaward Ill.
33
6 Government and society
The growth of government · Law and justice' Religious beliefs'
Ordinary people in country and town ' The growth of towns as centres of
wealth· Language, literature and culture
The growth of government
William the Conqueror had governed England and
Normandy by travelling from one place to another
to make sure that his author ity was accepted. He,
and the kings after him , raised some of the money
they needed by trying cases and fining people in th e
royal courts. The king's "household" was th e
government, and it was always on the move. The re
was no teal capital of the kingdom as there is today.
Kings were crowned in Westminste r, but the ir
treasury stayed in the old Wessex cap ital,
Winchester. When Will iam and the kings after him
moved around the country staying in towns and
castles, they were accompanied by a large number
of followers. Wherever they went the local people
had to give them food and somewhe re to stay. It
could have a terrib le effect . Food ran out , and
prices rose.
This form of gove rnment could only work well for a
small kingdom. By the time the English kings were
ruling half of France as well they cou ld no longer
travel everywhere themselves. Instead, they sent
nobles and kni ghts from the royal household to act
as sheriffs. But even this system needed peopl e who
could administer taxation, justice, and cartI' out the
king's instructi ons. It was obviously not practi cal
for all these peopl e to follow the king ever ywhere.
At first this "administration" was based in
Wi nchester, but by the time of Edward I, in 1290,
it had moved to Westminster. It is st ill there today.
However, even though the administration was in
Westminster the real capi tal of England was st ill "in
the king's saddle".
34
The king kept all his records in Westminster,
including the Domesday Book. The king's
administrat ion kept a careful watch on noble
families. It made sllte the king claimed money
every ti me a young noble took over the lands of his
father, or when a noble's daughter married. In
every possible way the king always "had his hand in
his subject's pocket". The administrat ion also
checked the towns and the potts to make sure that
taxes were paid, and kept a record of the fines made
by the king's court.
Most important of all, the officials in Westminster
had to watch the econo my of the country carefully.
Was the king gett ing the mon ey he needed in the
most effecti ve way?Suc h quest ions led to important
cha nges in taxation between 1066 and 1300. In
1130 well over half of Henry I's mon ey came from
his own land, one-third from his feudal vassals in
rights and fi nes, and only one-seventh from taxes.
One hundred and fi fty years later, over half of
Edward Its money came from [axes, but only one-
third came from his land and only one-tenth from
his feudal vassals. It is no wonder that Edward
called to his parliament representati ves of the
people whom he could tax most effectively.
It is not surprising, either, that the administrat ion
began to grow very qui ckly. When William I
invaded Britain he needed only a few clerks to
manage his paperwork. Most business, incl uding
feudal homage, was done by t he spoken , not
written, word. But the need for paperwork grew
rapidl y. In 1050 only the king (Edward th e
Confessor ) had a seal with which to "sign" official
papers. By the time of Edward I, just ove r two
hundred years later, even the poorest man was
expec ted to have a seal in order to sign official
papers, even if he could not read. From 11 99 the
administration in West minster kept copies of all the
letters and documents that were sent out.
The amount of wax used for seals on official papers
gives an idea of the rapid growth of the royal ad-
ministrati on . In 1220, at the beginning of Henry
Ill 's reign, 1.5 kg were used each week. Forty years
later, in 1260, thi s had risen to 14 kg weekly. And
government administration has been growing ever
since.
Law and justice
The king, of course, was responsible for law and
justice. But kings usually had to leave the
administration of this important matter to someone
who lived close to the place where a crime was
committ ed. In Saxon times every distr ict had had
its own laws and customs, and justice had often
been a family matter. After the Nor man Co nquest
nobles were allowed to administer justice among
the villages and peop le on th eir lands. Usually they
mixed Norman laws with the old Saxon laws. They
had freedom to act more or less as they liked. More
serious offences, however, were tried in the king's
courts.
Henry I int roduced the idea th at all crimes, even
those inside the family, were no longer only a
family matter but a breaking of the "king' s peace".
It was therefore the king's duty to try people and
punish the m. At fi rst the nobles acted for the king
on their own lands, but Henry wanted th e same
kind of justice to be used everywhere. So he
appointed a number of judges who trave lled from
place to place administering justice. (These
travel ling, or "circuit" , judges st ill exist today. )
They dealt both with crimes and disagreements
over property. In thi s way the king slowly took over
the administration from the nobles,
At fi rst the king's judges had no special knowledge
or traini ng. They were simply trusted to use
common sense. Many of them were nobles or
bishops who followed dir ectl y the orders of the
king. It is not surprising that th e quality of judges
6 Government and society
depended on the choice of the king. Henry 11 , the
most powerful English king of the twelfth century,
was known in Europe for th e high standards of his
law courts. "The convi nci ng proof of our king's
strength, " wrote one man. "is that whoever has a
just cause wants to have it tried before him,
whoever has a weak one does not come unless he is
dragged."
By the end of th e twelfth century the judges were
men with real knowledge and expe rience of the
law. Na turally these judges, travelling from place to
place, administered the same law wherever they
went. This might seem obvious now, but since
Saxon times local customs and laws had varied from
one place to anothe r. The law administered by
these travelling judges beca me known as "common
law", because it was used everywhere.
England was unlike the rest of Europe because it
used common law. Centuries later. England's
common law system was used in the United States
(the North Amer ican coloni es) and in many ot her
British colon ial possessions, and accepted when
these became nat ions in their own right. In ot her
part s of Europe legal practice was based on the Civil
Law of the Roman Empire, and th e Canon Law of
the Church. But although English lawyers referred
to these as examples of legal method and science,
they created an ent irely differen t system of law
based on custom. comparisons. previous cases and
previous decisions. In thi s way tradit ional local laws
were replaced by common law all ove r the land.
This mixture of experience and custom is the basis
of law in England even today. Modern judges st ill
base their deci sions on the way in which similar
cases have been dec ided.
The new class of judges was also interested in how
the law was carried out , and what kinds of
punishme nt were used. From Anglo-Saxon ti mes
the re had been two ways of decidin g diffi cul t cases
when it was not clear if a man was innocen t or
guilty. The accused man could be tested in battle
against a skilled fi ghter, or tested by "ordeal". A
typical "ordeal" was to put a hot iron on the man's
tongue. If the burn mark was st ill there three days
later he was thought to be guilty. It was argued that
35
An Illustrated History of Britain
God would leave the bum mark on a guilty man 's
tongue. Such a system worked only as lon g as
people believed in it. By the end of the twelfth
century there were serious doubts and in 1215 the
pope forbade the Church to have anyt hing to do
with trial by orde al.
In England tr ial by ordeal was replaced wit h trial by
jury. The jury idea dat ed back to the Danes of
Danelaw, but had only been used in disputes over
land. Henry 11 had already int roduced the use of
juries for some cases in the second half of the
twelfth century. But it was not the kind of jury we
know today. In 1179 he allowed an accused man in
certain cases to claim "trial by jury". The man
could choose twel ve neighbours, "twelve good men
and true". who would hel p hi m prove that he was
not guilty. Slowly, during the later Middle Ages,
the work of these juries gradually changed from
giving evidence ro judging the evidence of others.
Juries had no tra ining in the law. They were
ordinary people using ordinary common sense . It
was soon obvious that they needed guidance. As a
result law schools grew up during the thirteenth
cent ury, producing lawyers who could advise juries
about the point s of law.
Religious beliefs
The Church at local village level was significantly
different from the politically powerful organisation
the king had to deal with . At the time of William I
the ord inary village priest could hardl y read at all,
and he was usually one of the peasant community.
His church belonged to the local lord, and was
often built next to the lord's house. Almost all
priests were married , and many inherited their
position from thei r fathe r.
However, even at village level the Church wished
to replace the lord's author ity with its own, but it
was only partly successful. In many places the lord
continued to choose the local priest. and to have
more influence over him than the more distant
Church authorities were able to have.
The Church also tried to prevent priests from
marrying, In this it was more successful, and by the
end of the thirtee nt h century married priests were
36
unusual. But it was still common to find a priest
who "kept a girl in his house who lit his fi re but put
our his virtue."
There were, however. many who promi sed not to
marry and kept that promise. This was parti cularly
true of those men and wome n who wanted to be
monks or nuns and entered the local monastery or
nunnery. One reason for entering a religious house
was the increasing diffi culty during this period of
living on the land. As the populati on grew, more
and more people found they could not feed their
whole family easily. If they could enter a son or
daughter into the local religious house there would
be fewer mout hs to feed. Indeed, it may have been
the economic difficulties of raising a family which
persuaded priests to follow the Church ruli ng. Life
was bette r as a monk within the safe walls of a
monastery than as a poor farmer outs ide. A monk
could learn to read and write, and be sure of food
and shelter. The mon asteries were cent res of wealth
and learning.
In 1066 there were fifty religious houses in England,
home for perhaps 1,000 mon ks and nuns. By the
beginning of the fourteenth cent ury there were
probably about 900 rel igious houses, with 17, 500
members. Even though the populat ion in the
fourteenth century was three times larger than it
had been in 1066, the growth of the mon asteri es is
impressive.
The thirt eenth cent ury brought a new movement ,
the "brotherhoods" of friars. These friars were
wandering preachers. They were interested not in
Church power and splendour, but in the souls of
ordinary men and women . They lived with the poor
and tried to bring th e comfort of Christianity to
them. They lived in contrast with the wealth and
power of the monasteries and cathedrals, the local
centres of the Church.
Ordinary people in country and
town
There were proba bly between I. 5 and 2 mil lion
people living in England in 1066. The Domesday
Book tells us that ni ne-tenths of them lived in the
countryside. It also tells us that 80 per cent of th e
land used for farming at the beginning of the
twent ieth century was already being ploughed in
1086. In fact it was not unt il the nineteenth
centu ry that the cult ivated area became greater
than the level recorded in the Domesday Book.
Life in the countrys ide was hard. Most of the
populat ion still lived in villages in southern and
eastern parts of England. In the nort h and west
there were fewer people, and th ey often lived apart
from each ot he r, on separate farms. Most people
lived in the simplest houses. The walls were made
of wooden beams and st icks, fi lled with mud. The
roofs were made of thatch, wit h reeds or corn stalks
laid th ickly and skilfully so that the rain ran off
easily. People ate cereals and vegetables most of the
time, with pork meat for special occasions. They
worked from dawn to dusk every day of the year,
every year, unt il they were unable to work any
longer. Until a man had land of his own he would
usually not marry. However, men and women often
slept toge ther before marri age, and once a woman
was expecti ng a child, the couple had no cho ice but
to marry.
The poor were divided from their masters by the
feudal class system. The basis of this "manor ial
system" was the excha nge of land for labour. The
landl ord expected the villagers to work a fi xed
number of days on his own land, the "home farm" .
The rest of the ti me they worked on their small
strips of land, part of the village' s "common land"
on which they grew food for themselves and th eir
family. The Domesday Book tells us that over
three-quarters of the count ry people were serfs.
They were not free to leave th eir lord' s service or
his land wit hout permission. Even if they wanted ro
run away, there was nowhere to run to. Anyway, a
serf's life, under his lord's protect ion, was bett er
than the life of an unp rot ect ed wanderer. Order
and protection, no matter how hard life might be,
was always better than disorder, when people would
starve.
The manorial system was not the same all over the
country, and it did not stay the same th roughout
the Middle Ages. There were always differences in
6 Gove rnment and society
the way the system worked between one estate and
anot her, one region and another, and between one
period and ano ther. Local customs and both local
and national economic pressures affected the way
things worked.
The manorial system is often thought to be
Norman, but in fact it had been growing slowly
throughout the Anglo-Saxon period. The Normans
inherited the system and deve loped it to its fullest
ext ent . But the Normans were blamed for the bad
aspects of th e manorial system because they were
foreign masters.
In the early days of the Conquest Saxons and
Normans feared and hated each ot he r. For
example, if a dead body was found , the Saxons had
to prove that it was not the body of a murdered
Norman. If they could not prove it, the Nor mans
would burn the nearest village. The Norman ruling
class only really began to mix with and marry the
Saxons, and consider themselves "English" rat he r
than French, after King John lost Normandy in
1204. Even then, dislike remained between the
rulers and the ruled.
Every schoo lchild knows the story of Robin Hood,
which grew out of Saxon hatred for Norman rule.
According to the legend Robin Hood lived in
She rwood Forest near Nottingham as a criminal or
"outlaw", outside feudal society and the protect ion
of the law. He stole from the rich and gave to the
poor , and he stood up for the weak against the
powerful. His weapon was not the sword of nobles
and knights, but the longbow, the weapon of the
common man.
In fact, most of the story is legend. The only thing
we know is that a man called Roberr or "Robin"
Hood was a wanted criminal in Yorkshire in 1230.
The legend was, however, very popular wit h th e
common people all through the fourteent h,
fifteenth and sixteent h centuries, although the
ruling class greatly disliked it . Late r the story was
cha nged. Robin Hood was described as a man of
noble birt h, whose lands had been taken by King
John. Almost certa inly this was an effort by the
author ities to make Robin Hood "respectable".
37
An Illustrated Hisrorv of Britain
Left: Two Oil! of [welvep cnees iUumaling cheoccupationsof each month. abouI /280.
Above left Febnwry: a man sifj cooking andwarming his hours /ry thefire. Abutlt' him hang,
smoked meat andsausages. probably his only meat for the u..in ter. In lheaU[umn most animals
u't'Te killed. andsmoked or saltedre keep them fromgoing bad. There ucs only enoughfood fa
keep breeding, animals aIi l/e through the "i nter. Below left NO\'efnber: perhaps it is fhe s a l ~
manknockingacorns or nurs fruma tree forhis pigs fa eat. Thecomplere set of pictures SN)U,'S
mixedfanning, u·hich produced cereals. grapes for u.'ine andpigs.
Above: A UIOfl1an milks a COUI, tt.'hik lhecoo.' tenderly licks us cul/. Almost all thepopulatilm liwJ in
the cmlncry. bUl COU'S uere kepcby rl)u''flspeopk too. This Jmnesric scene furs a tow:hinggemlmess
about il.
Most landlords obtained their income directly from
the home farm, and also from letting out some of
their land in return for rent in crops or money. The
size of the home farm depend ed on how much land
th e landlord chose to let out . In the twelfth
cent ury, for example, many landlords found it more
profitable to let out almost all the home farm lands,
and thus be paid in money or crops rathe r than in
labour. In fact it is from thi s period that the word
"farm" comes. Each arrangement the landlord made
to let land to a villager was a "firrna": a fixed or
settled agreement.
By 1300 the population was probably just ove r four
million (up to the nineteent h century fi gures can
only be guessed at) , about three times what it had
been in 1066. This increase, of course, had an
effect on life in the count ry. It made it harder to
grow enough food for everyone. The situat ion was
made worse by the Normans' love of hunti ng. They
drove the English peasants out of the forests, and
puni shed them severely if they killed any forest
animals. "The forest has its own laws. " wrote one
man bitterly, "based not on the common law of the
kingdom, but on the personal wishes of the king."
38
The peasants tried to farm more land . They drained
marshland , and tried to grow food on hi gh ground
and on other poor land. But much of this newly
cleared land quickl y became exhausted, because the
soil was too poor, being either too heavy or too
light and sandy. As a result , the effort to farm more
land could not match th e increase in populat ion ,
and this led to a decline in individual fami ly land
holdings. It also led to an increase in the number of
landless labourers, to greater povert y and hunger.
As land became overused, so bad harvests became
more frequent. And in the years of bad harvest
people starved to death . It is a pattern cr uelly
familiar to many poor countries today. Among
richer people, the pressure on land led to an
increase in its value, and to an increase in buying
and selling. Landowning widows found themselves
courted by land-hungry single men .
Unfort unatel y, agricultural skills improved littl e
during this period. Ne ither peasants nor landlords
had the necessary knowledge or understanding to
develop the m. In addition, manori al landlords,
equally int erested in good harvests, insisted th at the
animals of the peasantry grazed on their own land
to enric h it during its year of rest. Many villagers
tried to increase their income by ot her act ivities
and became blacksmiths, carpenters, tilers or
shepherds, and it is from the thi rtee nth century
that many villagers beca me known by their trade
name.
Shortage of food led to a sha rp rise in prices at the
end of the twelfth century. The price of wheat, for
example, doubled between 1190 and 1200. A sheep
that cost four pence in 11 99 fetched ten pence in
1210. Prices would be high in a bad season, but
could suddenly drop whe n the har vest was specially
good. This inflat ion weakened feudal t ies, which
depended to a great extent on a steady economic
situation ro be workable. The smaller landed
knights found it increasingly difficult to pay for
the ir military duties. By the end of the thirteenth
century a knight's equipment, which had cost
fifteen shillings in the early twelfth century, now
cost more than three times this amount. Although
nobles and knights could get more money from
their land by paying farm labourers and receiving
money rents than by giving land rent free in return
for labour , many knights with smaller estates
became increasingly indebted.
We know about these debts from the records of the
"Exchequer of the Jews". The small Jewish
community in England earned its living by lending
money, and lived under royal protect ion. By the
late thirteent h century these records show a large
numbe r of knights in debt to Jewish money lenders.
Whe n a knight was unable ro repay the mon ey he
had borrowed, the Jewish money lender sold the
knight's land to the greate r landholding nobility.
This did not please Edward I, who feared the
growth in power of the greater nobility as th ey
profited from the disappearance of smaller land-
holders. He had want ed the support of the knightl y
class against the greater lords, and it was partly for
this reason tha t he had called on the m to be
represented in Parli ament. Now he saw the danger
that as a class they might become seriously
weakened. The Jews were middlemen in an
economic process whic h was the result of social
forces at work in the countryside. Whi le th e
economic function of the Jews in providing capi tal
had been useful the y had been safe, but once thi s
6 Government and society
was no longer so, the king used popular fee ling
against them as an excuse to expe l them. In 1290
the Jewish community was forced to leave the
country.
Feudal ism was slowly dying out, but the cha nges
often made landlords richer and peasants poorer.
Larger landlords had to pay fewer feudal taxes,
while new taxes were demanded from eve ryone in
possession of goods and incomes. As a result many
could not afford to pay rent and so they lost their
land. Some of these landless people went to the
towns, which offered a bett er hope for the fut ure.
The growth of towns as centres
of wealth
England was to a very large degree an agricultura l
soc iety. Even in towns and ci ties, many of those
invol ved in trade or industry also farmed small
holdings of land on the edge of town. In th is sense
England was self-sufficient. However, througho ut
the Middle Ages England needed things from
abroad, such as salt and spices. Inside England
there was a good deal of trade between different
regions. Wool -growing areas, for example, imported
food from food-producing areas. However, it is
harder to know the extent of this internal trade
because it was less formal than international trade,
and therefore less recorded.
We know more about internat ional trade, which
was recorded because the king obtained a
considerable income from customs dues. During the
Anglo-Saxo n per iod most European trade had been
with the Frisians in the Low Count ries, around the
mouth of the River Rhine. Following the Viking
invasions most trade from the ninth century
onwards had taken place with Scandinavia. By th e
eleventh century, for example, English grain was
hi ghl y valued in Norway. In return England
imported Scandinav ian fish and tall t imber.
However, by the end of the twelfth century this
Anglo-Scandinavian trade link had weakened.
This was the result of the Norman Conquest, after
which England looked away from the nort heast ,
Scandinav ia and Ge rmany, and towards the south,
France, the Low Countries, and beyond. The royal
39
An Illustrated History of Britain
family had links with Gascony in southwest France,
and this led to an important trade exchange of wine
for clot h and cerea l. However, easily the most
important link was once again with the Low
Countries, and the basis of this trade was wool.
England had always been famous for its wool , and
in Anglo-Saxon times much of it had been
exported to the Low Countries. In order to improve
the manufacture of wooll en cloth, Willi am the
Conqueror encouraged Flemish weavers and other
skilled workers from Normandy to settle in
England. They helped to establish new towns:
Newcas tle, Hull, Boston, Lynn and ot hers. These
settlers had good connections with Europe and were
able to begin a lively trade . Howe ver, raw wool
rather than finished cloth remained the main
export. As the European demand for wool stayed
hi gh, and since no other country could mat ch the
high quality of English wool, English exporters
could charge a price high above the producti on
cos t, and about twice as much as the price in the
home market . The king taxed the export of raw
woo l heavil y as a means of increasing his own
income. It was easily England 's most profitable
business. When Richard I was freed from hi s
capt ivity, over half the price was paid in wool. As a
symbol of England's source of wealth, a wool sack
has remained in the House of Lords ever since thi s
time . Much of th e wool industry was built up by th e
mona steries, whi ch kept large fl ocks of sheep on
their great estates.
The wool trade illustrat es the way in which the
town s related to the countryside. "Chapmen" or
"h ucksters", travelling traders, would buy wool at
parti cular vilIage markers. Then rhey took rhe wool
to town, where ir would be graded and bundled up
for export or for local spinning. Larger fai rs, both in
town and country, were important places where
trade rs and producers met, and deal s could be
made. These were not purely English affairs. For-
eign mercha nts seeking high quality wool frequently
attended the larger fairs.
Such trade activ ities could nor possibly have taken
place under the restrictions of feudalism. But towns
were valuable centres to nobles who wanted to sell
40
their produce and to kings who wished to benefit
from the increase in nat ional wealth. As a result,
the townspeople quickly managed to free
th emselves from feuda l t ies and interference. At the
end of the Anglo-Saxon period th ere were only a
few towns, but by 1250 most of England' s towns
were already establi shed .
Many towns stood on land belonging to feudal
lords. But by the twelfth century kings were
discouraging local lords from taking the wealth from
nea rby towns. They realised that towns could
become effect ive cent res of royal authority, to
balance the power of the local nobil ity. The kings
therefore gave "charters of freedom" to many
towns, freeing the inh abi tants from feudal dut ies to
the local lord. These chatt ers, however, had to be
paid for , and kings sold th em for a hi gh price. But
it was worth the money. Towns could now raise
their own local taxes on goods coming in. They
could also have their own courts, cont rolled by the
town merchants, on cond ition that they paid an
annua l tax to the king. Inside th e town walls,
people were able to develop social and economic
organi sati ons free from feudal rule. It was the
beginnings of a middl e class and a capitalist
economy.
Within the towns and cities, society and the
economy were mainl y controlled by "guilds". These
were brotherhoods of different kinds of mercha nt s,
or of skilled workers. The word "gui ld" came from
the Saxon word "gildan", to pay, because members
paid towards th e cost of the brotherhood . The
merchant guilds grew in the thirteent h century and
included all the traders in any parti cular town.
Under these guilds trade was more tightl y
controlled than at any later period. At least one
hundred guilds existed in the rhirr eenrh century,
similar in some ways to our modern trade unions.
The right to form a guild was somet imes incl uded
in a town's charter of freedom. It was from among
the members of the guild that the town' s leaders
were probably chosen. In the course of time entry
int o these guilds became increasingl y difficult as
guilds tried to control a particular trade . In some
cases ent ry was only open to the sons of guild
members. In other cases ent ry could be obtained by
paying a fee to cove r the cost of the training, or
apprenticeship, necessary to maintain the hi gh
standard of the trade.
During the fourtee nt h century, as larger towns
continued to grow. "craft" guilds came into being.
All members of each of these guilds belonged to the
same trade or craft. The earliest craft guilds were
those of the weave rs in London and Oxford. Each
guild tried to protect its own trade interests.
Members of these guilds had the right to produce,
buy or sell the ir part icular trade wit hout having to
pay specia l town taxes . But members also had to
make sure that goods were of a certai n quality, and
had to keep to agreed prices so as not to undercut
other guild members.
In London the development of craft guilds went
furt her than elsewhe re, with a rich upper level of
the craft community, the so-called livery
companies, controlling most of the affairs of th e
city. Over the centuries the twelve main livery
companies have developed into large financial
institutions. Today th ey play an important part in
the government of the City of London , and the
yearly choice of its Lord Mayor.
Language, literature and culture
The growth of literacy in England was closely
connec ted with the twelfth-century Renaissance, a
cultural move ment which had fi rst started in Italy.
Its influence moved northwards along the trade
routes, reachi ng England at th e end of th e century.
This revolut ion in ideas and learning brought a new
desire to test religious faith against reason . Schools
of learning were established in many towns and
cities. Some were "grammar" schools independent
of the Church, while ot he rs were attached to a
cat hedral. All of these schoo ls taught Lat in,
because most books were written in th is language.
Altho ugh it may seem strange for educat ion to be
based on a dead language, Latin was important
because it was the educated language of almost all
Europe, and was therefore useful in the spread of
ideas and learning. In spite of the dangers, th e
Church took a lead in the new int ellectual
movement.
6 Go vernment and society
In England two schoo ls of hi gher learning were
estab lished, the first at Oxford and the second at
Ca mbridge, at the end of the twel fth century. By
the 1220s these two universit ies were the
intellectual leaders of the country.
Few could go to the uni versities. Most English
people spoke neither Latin, the language of th e
Church and of educat ion, nor French , the language
of law and of the Norman rulers. It was a long time
before English became the language of the ruling
class. Some French words became part of the
English language, and often kept a more polite
meani ng tha n the old Anglo-Saxon words. For
example, the word "chair", whi ch came from the
French , describes a bett er piece of furniture th an
the Anglo-Saxon word "stool". In the same way,
the Anglo-Saxon word "be lly" was replaced in
polite society by the word "stomac h". Other
An glo-Saxon words ceased to be used altogether .
MobQuad inMer rcn College is the oldest of Oxford's famous
"quadrangles", or wur/yards. It was built in the fiTSl halfof thefourteenth
cenrury. Almost all /he Oxford colleges were built roundqumwrangles, with
a library on oneside (in MobQuad on the fiTSl floor on Ihe left), and living
areas for bvthmasters andstudents on /he othersides. Me-ton College
chapel, in thebackground, is the finest late four/eenth-cenlury example in
Oxf<Ad.
41
42
The late Middle Ages
7 The century of war, plague and disorder
War with Scotland and France ' The age of chivalry ' The century of
plagues' The poor in revolt· Heresy and orthodoxy
The fourteenth ce ntury was disastrous for Britain as
well as most of Europe , because of the effect of wars
and plagues. Probably one-t hir d of Europe' s
population died of plague. Hardly anywhere
escaped its effects.
Britain and France suffered, too, from the damage s
of war. In the 1330s England began a long struggle
against the French Crown. In France villages were
raided or destroyed by passing armies. France and
England were exhausted economically by the cost of
maintaining armies. England had the addition al
burden of fighting the Scots, and maintaining
control of Ireland and Wa les, bot h of which were
trying to throw off English rule.
It is difficult to measure the effect s of war and
plague on fourteenth-century Britain, except in
deat hs. But undoubtedly one effect of both was an
increasing challenge to aut hor ity. The heavy
demands made by the king on gentry and
merchants weakened the economic strengt h of
town and countryside but increased the polit ical
strength of the merchants and gent ry whenever
they provided the king with money. The growth of
an alliance between merchants and gentry at this
rime was of the greatest importance for later
political developme nts, part icularly for the strength
of Parliament against the king in the seventeent h
The Tower of London has been a fortress, palace and prison. One (If its
ear/it'srprisoners «us the French dukeof Or/cam, who was capnm:d at the
btlllle of Agincourl in /415. He spent ru:enly-jiw yean in EnglishpriStJIU
Ix{ore he was rcnsomed He appears in (his p iCCIiTC, sealed in rhe NOTTJ\iIn
Whi te TOUlCT, gumckd by English soldiers. The\'(Ihire Tower itself was built
try WiUiam I lLi th slant brou.ght fromNormandy. Behind the TOU'ef is
Lon<Um Bridge, u11h houses btlilc upon it .
century, and also for the strength of society against
the dangers of revolut ion at the end of the
eighteent h century. Finally, the habit of war
created a new class of armed men in the
countryside, in place of the old feudal system of
forty days' service. These gangs, in reality local
private armies, damaged the local economy but
increased the nobles' ability to challenge the
aut hority of the Crown. Already in 1327 one king
had been murdered by powerful nobles, and another
on e was murdered in 1399. These murders
weakened respect for the Crown, and encouraged
repeated struggles for it amongst the king's most
powerful relat ions. In the following cent ury a king,
or a king' s eldest son, was killed in 1461, 1471,
1483 and 1485. But in the end the nobles destroyed
themselves and as a class they disappeared.
War with Scotland and France
England's wish to control Scotland had suffered a
major setback at Bannoc kburn in 1314. Many of
the English had been killed, and Edward 11 himself
had been lucky to escape. After other unsuccessful
att empts England gave up its claim to overlordship
of Scotland in 1328. However, it was not long
before the two countries were at war again, but thi s
t ime because of England' s war with France.
The repeated atte mpts of English kings to control
Scotland had led the Scots to look for allies. After
Edward I's atte mpt to take ove r Scotland in 1295,
the Scots turned to the obv ious ally, the king of
France, for whom there were clea r advantages in an
alliance with Scotland. This "Auld [old] Alliance"
43
An Illustrated Hisrory of Britain
lasted into the sixteenth century. France benefited
more than Scotland from it, but both countries
agreed that whenever England attacked one of
them, the ot her would make trouble behind
England's back . The alliance did not operate the
whole time. There were long periods when it was
not needed or used.
England's troubles with France resulted from the
French king's growing autho rity in France, and his
determination to control all his nobles, even the
greatest of them. France had suffered for centuries
from rebellious vassals, and the two most
troublesome were the duke of Burgundy and the
English king (who was still the king of France' s
vassal as duke of Aquitaine), both of whom refused
to recogni se the French king's ove rlordship.
To make his position stronger, the king of France
began to int erfere with England's trade. Part of
Aquitaine, an area called Gascony, traded its fine
wines for England' s corn and woollen clot h. This
trade was worth a lot of money to the English
Crown. But in 1324 the Frenc h king seized part of
Gascony. Burgundy was England's other major
trading partner, because it was through Burgundy' s
province of Flanders (now Belgium) that almost all
England' s wool exports were made. Any French
move to control these two areas was a direct threat
to England' s wealth. The king of France tti ed to
make the duke of Burgundy accept hi s authority.
To prevent this, England threat ened Burgundy with
economic collapse by stopp ing wool exports to
Flande rs. This forced the duke of Burgundy to make
an all iance with England against France.
England went to war because it could not afford the
destruction of its trade with Flanders. It was
difficult to persuade merchants to pay for wars
against the Scots or the Welsh, from which there
was so little wealth to be gained. But the threat to
thei r trade and wealth persuaded the rich merchant
classes of England tha t war against France was
absolutely nece ssary. The lords, knights and
fight ing men also looked forward to the possibility
of winning riches and lands.
Edward HI declared war on France in 1337. His
excuse was a bold one: he clai med th e right to the
44
French Crown. It is unlikel y that anyone , except
for the English, took his claim very seriously, but it
was a good enough reason for starting a war. The
war Edward began, later called the Hundred Years
War, did not finally end unt il 1453, with the Eng-
lish Crown losing all its possessions in France
except for Ca lais, a northern French port .
At first the English were far more successful than
the French on th e battlefield. The English army was
experienced through its wars in Wales and in
Scotland. It had learnt the value of being lightly
armed. and quick in movement. Its most important
weapon was the We lsh longbow, used by most of
the ordinary footso ldiers. It was very effective on
the battlefield because of its qui ck rat e of fire. An
experienced man could fire a second arrow into the
air before the first had reached its destination .
Writers of the time talk of "clouds" of arrows
darkening the sky. These arrows cou ld go through
most armour . The value of the longbow was proved
in two victori es, at Crecv in 1346 and at Poitiers in
1356, wher e the French king hi mself was taken
prison er. The English captured a huge quanti ty of
treasure, and it was said that after the battle of
Poiriers every woman in England had a French
bracelet on her arm. The French king bought hi s
freedom for £500,000, an enor mous amount of
mone y in those days.
By the treat y of Brerignv, in 1360, Edward III was
happy to give up his claim to the French throne
because he had re-estab lished control over areas
previously held by the English Crown. The French
recogn ised his ownership of all Aquitaine,
including Gascon y; parts of Normandy and
Brittany, and the newl y captured port of Calais.
But because the French king had only unwillingly
accepted thi s situat ion the war did not end, and
fi ghting soon began again. All thi s land, except for
the valuable coastal port s of Calais, Cherbourg,
Bresr, Bordeaux and Bayonne. was taken back by
French forces dur ing the next fifteen years. It was a
warning that winning battles was a good deal easier
than winning wars.
True to the "Auld Alli ance" the king of Scots had
attacked England in 1346, but he was defeated and
taken pti soner. English for ces raided as fat as
Edinb urgh, dest roying and looting. However ,
Edward III all owed the French to ransom the Scots
king Dav id and, sat isfied wit h his successes in
France, Edward gave up trying to control the Scots
Crown. For a while th ere was peace, but the
st ruggle bet ween th e French and English kin gs over
French territories was [0 cont inue into the fifteenth
century.
The age of chivalry
Edward III and his eldest son , the Black Prince,
were greatly admired in England for their courage
on the battle field and for their courrlv manners.
They became symbo ls of the "code of chivalry", the
way in which a perfect kni ght shou ld behave.
During th e reign of Edward int erest grew in th e
legendary King Arrhur. Arthur, if he ever existed,
was probably a Cel tic ruler who fought the Anglo-
Saxons, but we know nothi ng more about him. The
fourtee nth-c entury legend created around Arrhur
included both the imagined magic and mystery of
the Celts, and also the kni ghtl y values of the court
of Edward Ill.
According to the code of chivalry, the perfect
knight fought for his good name if insulted, served
God and the kin g, and defended any lady in need.
These ideas were expressed in the legend of th e
Round Table, around which King Arr hnr and his
knights sat as equals in holy brot herhood.
Edward int roduced the idea of chivalry into hi s
court. Once, a lady at cou rt acc ide ntally dropped
her garter and Edward III not iced some of hi s
courtiers laugh ing at her. He picked up the garter
and tied it to hi s own leg, saying in French, "Honi
soir '1"i mal y pense," whi ch meant "Let him be
ashamed who sees wrong in it. " From thi s strange
yet probabl y true story, the Order of the Garter was
founded in 1348. Edward chose as members of the
order rwenrv-four kni ghts, th e same number the
legenda ry Art hu r had chosen. They met once a
year on Sr George's Day at Windsor Castle , whe re
King Arrhur's Round Table was supposed to have
7 The cen turyof war, plague and disorder
(/'1,.,"- . ~ ~
EdU'dTd 1lJ recenes his sword andshield fr(JJll the mythical SI George. This is
a propaganda picture. As paeron saimof England. andof the Order of the
Gcrrer whkh EJward 11l has founded, SeGeorge is used in rhis way 10
ccmfinn EdwarJ's posmon.
been. The custom is still followed, and Hon; Soit
Qui Mal Y Pense is sti ll th e mott o of the royal
family.
Chivalry was a useful way of persuading men to
fight by creating th e idea that war was a noble and
glorious thing. War could also, of course , be
profitable. But in fact cruelt y, death, destructi on
and theft were th e reality of war, as th ey are today.
The Black Prince, who was the livin g example of
chivalry in England, was feared in France for hi s
cruelty.
45
An Illustrated History of Britain
\ ..,' ---
Knights, ,u.:cording to the ideals of chivalry, would fight to defend a lady's
honour. In peacetime knights fought oneagainst another in tournaments.
Here a knight prepares to fight, and is handed his helmet and shield by his
wife and d,mghter. Dlherknights could recognise by the designon his shield
and on his horse's coat: !hat the rider uus Sir Geoffrey LwtreIl.
The century of plagues
The year 1348 brought an event of far greater
importance th an the creat ion of a new orde r of
chivalry, This was the terri ble plague, known as the
Black Death, which reached almost every part of
Britain during 1348-9, Proba bly more than one-
third of the entire popul ati on of Britain died, and
fewer than one person in ten who caught the
plague managed to survive it, Whole villages
disappeared, and some towns were almost
completely deserted until the plague itself died out ,
46
The Black Death was neither the first natur al
disaster of the fourteenth century, nor the last ,
Plagues had killed sheep and ot he r anima ls earlier
in the century, An agricultural crisis resulted from
the growth in populat ion and the need to produce
more food, Land was no longer allowed to rest one
year in three, which meant that it was ove r-used,
resulting in years of famine when the harvest failed,
This process had already begun to slow down
populat ion growth by 1300,
After t he Black Death there were other plagues
during the rest of the ce ntury which killed mostly
the young and heal th y. In 1300 t he population of
Brita in had pro babl y been over four mi llion . By the
end of t he ce nt ury it was probably hardl y half th at
fi gure , and it only began to grow again in the
second half of t he fifteenth ce nt ury. Even so, it
took until the seve nteent h cent ury hefor e the
population reached four million again.
The dramati c fall in popul ati on, however, was not
entirel y a bad t hing. At th e end of t he th irt eenth
cent ury the sharp rise in prices had led an
increasing number of landlords to stop paying
workers for thei r labour, and to go back to serf
labour in order to avoi d losses. In return villagers
were given land to farm, but th is tenanted land was
often t he poorest land of the manori al esta te . After
the Black Deat h th ere were so few people to wor k
on the land that the remaining workers could ask
for mor e money for their labour. We know th ey did
this because the king and Parliament tried again
and again to control wage increases. We also know
from these repeated effor ts t hat t he y cannot have
been successful. The poor found that they co uld
demand more money and did so. This fina lly led to
the end of serfdom.
7 The CCn[Uf)' of war, r l a g t l ~ and disorder
Because of the shortage and expense of labour,
landlords ret urned to t he twelft h-cent ury pract ice of
lett ing out the ir land to energet ic free man farmers
who bit by bit added to th eir own land. In th e
twelfth ce nt ury, however, th e practice of let t ing
out farms had been a way of increasing the
landlord's profits, Now it became a way of avolding
losses. Many "firma" agree ments were for a whole
life span, and some for several life spans. By th e
mid-fifteenth ce nt ury few landlords had home far ms
at all. These smaller farmers who rented th e
manorial lands slowly became a new cl ass, known
as the "yeomen". They became an important parr
of t he agricult ura l econo my, and have always
remained so.
Over all, agricult ural land product ion shrank, but
t hose who survived the disasters of t he fourteenth
ce nt ury enjoyed a greate r share of t he agricultural
economy. Even for peasant s life became more
comfortable. For th e first time th ey had eno ugh
money to build more solid houses, in stone where it
was avail abl e, in place of huts made of wood, mud
and thatch.
There had bee n other economi c cha nges during t he
fourteenth ce nt ury. The most important of th ese
was th e replacement of wool by finished cloth as
The BIac.-kDt:a{h killed betueen a
half andonc-thirduf {he
popukuiml of Britain.
47
An Illustrated History of Britain
England 's main export . This change was the natural
result of the very hi gh prices at whic h English wool
was sold in Flanders by th e end of the thirteenth
cent ury. Merchants decided they cou ld increase
their profits further by buying wool in England at
half the price for which it was sold in Flanders, and
produce finished cloth for export . This process
suddenly grew very rapidly after the Flemish clot h
industry itself collapsed dur ing the years 1320 to
1360. Hundreds of ski lled Flemings came to
England in search of work. They were encour aged
to do so by Edward III because there was a clea r
benefi t to England in export ing a finished product
rather than a raw material. The surname "Flerning"
has been a co mmon one in England ever since,
particularly in East Anglia, where many Flemings
settled.
At the beginning of the century England had
exported 30,000 sacks of raw wool but only 8,000
lengths of cloth each year. By the middl e of the
century it exported only 8,000 sacks of wool but
50, 000 lengths of cloth, and by the end of the
century thi s increased to well over 100,000. The
wool export towns decl ined . They were replaced by
towns and villages with fast-flowing rivers useful for
the new process of cleaning and treating wool.
Much of the cloth making process, like spinni ng,
was done in th e workers' own homes. Indeed, so
many young women spun wool that "spinster"
became and has remained the word for an
unmarri ed woman.
The West Country, Wales, and Yorkshire in the
north all did well from the change in c1othmaking.
But London remained much larger and richer. By
the late fourteenth century its 50, 000 inhabitants
were supported by trade with the outside world,
especia lly the Baltic, Med iterranean and Nort h Sea
port s. Its nearest trade rival was Bristol.
48
The poor in revolt
It is surprising that the English never rebelled
against Edward Ill. He was an expensive king at a
t ime when many people were miserably poor and
sick with plagues. At th e time of the Black Deat h
he was busy with expensive wars against France and
Scotland. The demands he made on merchants and
peasants were enormous, but Edward 1\1 handled
these people with skill.
Edward's grandson, Richard , was less fortu nate. He
became king on his grandfathe r's death in 1377
because his father, the Black Prince, had died a few
months earlier. Richard 11 inherit ed the problems of
discontent but had neither th e diplomati c skill of
his grandfather, nor the popu larit y of his father.
Added to this he became king when he was only
eleven , and so othe rs governed for him. In the year
he became king, these advisers introduced a tax
payment for every person ove r the age of fifteen.
Two years lat er, thi s tax was enforced again . The
peopl e paid.
But in 1381 thi s tax was enforced for a third time
and also increased to three t imes the previous
amount. There was an immediate revol t in East
Anglia and in Kent , two of the richer parts of the
country. The poorer parts of the count ry, the north
and northwest , did not rebel. This suggests that in
the richer areas ordinary peop le had become more
aware and confi dent of their rights and th eir power.
The new tax had led to revolt, but there were also
ot he r reasons for discontent. The landlords had
been trying for some t ime to force the peasants back
int o serfdom, because serf labour was cheaper than
paid labour. The leader of the revol t, Wat Tvler,
was the first to call for fair treatment of England's
poor people: HWe are men formed in Christ's
likeness, " he claimed, "a nd we are kept like
animals." The people sang a revolutio nary rhyme
suggesting that when God created man he had not
made one man master over ano the r:
When Adam del ved, and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman ?
The idea that God had created all people equal
called for an end to feudalism and respect for
honest labour. But the Peasants' Revolt , as it was
called, only lasted for four weeks. During that
period the peasants took control of much of
London. In fact the revolt was not only by peasants
from the countryside: a number of poorer
rownspeople also revolted, suggesting that the
discontent went beyond the quest ion of feuda l
service. When Wat Tyler was kill ed, Richard 11
skilfully quietened the angry crowd. He promised to
meet all the peop le's dema nds, incl uding an end to
serfdom, and the peop le peacefully went home.
As soon as they had gone, Richard's position
changed. Although he did not try to enforce the
tax, he refused to keep his promise to give the
peasants th eir other demands. "Se rfs you are," he
said, "and serfs you shall remain ." His officers
hunted down ot he r leading rebels and hanged
them. But th e danger of revolt by the angry poor
was a warning to the king, the nobles and to the
wealthy of the city of London.
Heresy and orthodoxy
The Peasants' Revolt was th e fi rst sign of growing
discontent with the state. During the next century
discon tent with the Church also grew. There had
already been a few attacks on Church propert y in
towns controlled by the Church. In 1381 one rebel
priest had called for the remova l of all bishops and
archbishops, as well as all the nobles,
The greed of the Church was one obvious reason
for its unpopularity. The Church was a feudal
power, and ofte n treated its peasants and
townspeople with as much cruelty as the nobles did.
There was anothe r reason why the people of
England disliked paying taxes to the pope. Edward's
wars in France were beginning to make the English
conscious of the ir "Eng lishness" and the pope was a
foreigner . To make matters worse the pope had
been driven out of Rome, and was living in
Avignon in France . It seemed obvious to the
English that the pope must be on the French side ,
and that the taxes they paid to the Church were
actually hel ping France against England. This was a
matter on which the king and people in England
agreed. The king reduced the amount of tax money
7 The century of war, plague and disorder
the pope could raise in Britain , and made sure that
most of it found its way into his own treasury
instead.
One might have expected the bishops and clergy to
oppose the king. They did not , because almost all
of them were English and came from noble families,
and so shared the polit ical views of the nobility.
Most of them had been appointed by the king and
some of them also acted as his officers. When the
peasants stormed London in 1381 they executed the
Archbishop of Canterbury, who was also the king's
chance llor. It was unlikel y that his killers saw much
difference between the two offices. Archbishop or
chance llor, he was part of an oppressive
establishment .
Another threat to the Church during the
fourteenth cent ury was the spread of rel igious
writings, which were popular with an increasingly
literate populat ion. These books were for use in
private prayer and dealt with the death of Jesus
Christ , the lives of the Saints and the Virgin Mary.
The increase in private prayer was a direct threat to
the authority of the Church over the reli gious life
of the populat ion. This was because t hese writ ings
allowed peopl e to pray and thi nk independently of
Church control. Private religious experience and
the increase of knowledge encouraged people to
challenge the Church's aut hority, and the way it
used this to adva nce its poli t ical infl uence.
Most people were happy to accept the conti nued
authority of the Church, but some were no t. At the
end of the fourteenth century new religious ideas
appeared in England which were dangerous to
Church authority, and were condemned as heresy.
This heresy was known as "Lollardv", a word which
probably came from a Latin word meani ng "to say
prayers". One of th e leaders of Lollardv was John
Wycl iffe, an Oxford professor . He believed that
everyo ne sho uld be able to read the Bible in Eng-
lish, and to be guided by it in order to save their
soul. He the refore translated it from Latin, fi nishing
the work in 1396. He was not allowed to publish
his new Bible in England, and was forced to leave
Oxford. However , both he and the ot her Lollards
were admired by those nobles and scholars who
49
An Illustrated History of Britain
The Peasants' Rewl! ended when {he LordMayor of London killed W,t{ Tyler (l{ Smi{hfield. Perhaps he feared
{hdf Tylerwould kill KingRichard, to whom Tyler was calking. Richard 11 can be seena secondtime, ta/king
re {he peesenr army (rigIH) andcalming lhelll with the words, "Sirs, will youshlKll your king! 1amyour
letUL..'T, follow me." In iaa he seru lhemro their h()1T\es, andsenl his officers re arrest andexecute {he le,uU.'TS.
were crirical of th e Church, its wealth and the poor
qualit y of its clergy.
If the Lollards had been supported by the king. the
English Church might have become independent
from the papacy in the early fifteenth cent ury. But
Richard's successo r, Henry IV, was not
sympathe t ic. He was deeply loyal to th e Church.
and in 1401 int roduced into England for the first
time the idea of execu ting the Lollards by burning.
Lollardv was not well enough organ ised to resist. In
the next few years it was driven underground , and
its spirit was not seen again for a century.
50
8 The crisis of kings and nobles
The crisis of kingship' Wales in revolt · The struggle in France' The
Wars of the Roses' Scotland
Richard 11. This is probably rhe earlim POTCTai! of a sovereignpaintedfrom
~ f e ID have survitlt'd to this day. This is a cupy of lhe original in Wesrminslt'T
Ab"",.
The crisis of kingship
During the fourteenth century, towards the end of
the Middl e Ages, there was a cont inuous struggle
between the king and his nob les, The first crisis
came in 1327 when Edward II was deposed and
cruelly murde red. His eleven-year-old son, Edward
Ill , became king, and as soon as he could, he
pun ished those responsible. But the princ iple that
kings were neither to be killed nor deposed was
broken.
Towards the end of the fourteenth cent ury Richard
II was the second king to be kill ed by ambitious
lords. He had made himself ext remely unpopular by
his choice of advisers. This was always a diffi cul t
mat ter, because the king's advisers became
powerful, and those not chosen lost influence and
wealth. Some of Richard's strongest critics had
been the most powerful men in the kingdom.
Richard was young and proud. He quarrelled with
these noble s in 1388, and used his author ity to
humbl e them. He impri soned his uncle, John of
Gaunt, the third son of Edward Ill, who was the
most powerful and wealthy noble of his time . John
of Ga unt died in prison. Other nobles, including
John of Ga unt's son, Henry duke of Lancaster, did
not forget or forgive. In 1399, when Richard II was
busy trying to establish royal author ity again in
Ireland, they rebelled. Henry of Lancaster, who had
left England, returned and raised an army. Richard
was deposed.
Un like Edward I1 , however, Richard II had no
children. There were two possible successors. One
was the earl of March, the seven-year-old grandson
of Edward Ill 's second son. The other was Henr y of
Lancaster, son of John of Ga unt . It was diffic ult to
51
An Illustrated History.of Britain
say which had the bett er claim to the throne. But
Henry was stronger. He won the support of ot her
powerful nobles and took the crown by force.
Richard died mvsreriouslv soon after.
Henr y IV spent the test of hi s reign establishing hi s
royal author ity. But although he passed the crown
to his son peacefully, he had sown the seeds of civil
war. Half a century later the nobility would be
divided between those who suppor ted his family,
the "Lancastr ians" , and those who supported the
family of the earl of March , the "Yorkists".
Wales in revolt
Edward I had conquered Wales in the I 280s, and
colonised it. He brought English peop le to enlarge
small towns. Pembr okeshire, in the far southwest ,
even became known as "t he little England beyond
Wales". Edward's officers drove many of the Wel sh
int o the hills, and gave their land to English
farmers. Man y Welsh were forced to join the
English army, not because the y wanted to serve the
English but because they had lost their land and
needed to live. They fought in Scotland and in
France, and taught the English their skill with the
longbow.
A century lat er the Welsh found a man who was
ready to rebel against the English king, and whom
they were willing to follow. Owain Glvndwr was
the fi rst and only Wel sh pr ince to have wide and
popular support in every part of Wales. In fact it
was he who created the idea of a Wel sh nat ion. He
was descended from two royal families which had
ruled in different part s of Wales before the
Normans came.
Owain Glvndwr's rebellion did not start as a
nati onal revol t . At first he joined the revol t of
Norman-Welsh border lords who had always tried
to be free of royal cont rol. But after ten years of war
Owain Glyndwr's border rebell ion had developed
into a national war, and in 1400 he was proclaimed
Prince of Wales by hi s suppor ters. This was far
more popular wit h the Welsh people than Edward
I's trick with his newborn son at Cae rnarfon in
1284. However, Glyndwr was not strong enough to
52
defeat th e English armies sent agai nst him. He
cont inued to fight a successful guerrilla war which
made the control of Wales an extre mely expensive
problem for the English. But after 1410 Glyndwr
lost almost all his support as Welsh people realised
that however hard they fought they would never be
free of the English . Owa in Glyndwr was never
captured. He did for Wales what William Wallace
had done for Scotland a cent ury earlier. He created
a feel ing of nat ional identity.
Cilgerran Castle, near Cardigan in southwest Wales, w a . ~ capturedby
OwainGlynJwrin /405. Although it had been built two hundred years
earlier. it was clearly strong and must NlVe been difficull to csprure.
The struggle in France
By the end of the fourteenth century, the long war
with France, known as the Hundred Years War,
had already been going on for over fifty years. But
there had heen long periods withou t actual fi ghting.
When Henry IV died in 1413 he passed on to his
son Henry V a kingdom that was peaceful and
unit ed. Henry V was a brave and intelli gent man ,
and like Richard I, he became one of England 's
favourite kings.
Since the situat ion was peacefu l at home Henry V
felt able to begin fighting the French again. His
French war was as popu lar as Edward Ill 's had been.
Henry had a great advantage because the king of
France was mad, and his nohles were quarrelsome.
The war began again in 1415 when Henry renewed
Edward Ill's claim to the throne of France .
Burgundy again supported England, and the English
army was able to prove once more that it was far
bette r in bat tle th an the French army. At
Aginco urt the same year th e English defeated a
French army three times its own size. The English
were more skilful, and had better weapo ns.
Between 1417 and 1420 Henry managed to capture
most of Nor mandy and the nearby areas. By the
treaty of Troyes in 1420 Henr y was recognised as
heir to the mad king, and he married Katherine of
Valois, the king' s daughter. Bur Henry V never
became king of France because he died a few
months before the French king in 1422. His nin e-
month-old babv son , Henr y VI, inherited the
thrones of England and France.
As with Sco tland and Wa les, England found it was
easier to invade and conquer France than to keep
it. At first Henry V's brother , John duke of
Bedford, cont inued to enlarge the area under
English control. But soon the Frenc h began to fight
back. Foreign invasion had created for the fi rst time
strong French national feeling. The English army
was twice defeated by the French, who were
inspired by a mysterious peasant girl called [oan of
Arc, who claimed to hear heavenl y voices. [oan of
Arc-was captured by the Burgundi ans, and given to
8 The crisis of kings and noble,
HenryV is remembered as possibly themost heroic of English kings because
of his brillianf campaigns in France. Hisdeath in 1422 brought to an end the
Englishkings' hopes of rulingFrance.
the English. The English gave her to the Church in
Rouen whi ch burnt her as a witch in 1431.
England was now beginning to lose an extremely
costly war. In 1435 England 's best general, John of
Bedford, di ed. Then England's Breron and
Burgundi an alli es lost confidence in the value of th e
English alliance . With the loss of Gascony in 1453,
the Hundred Years War was over. England had lost
everything exce pt rhe port of Calais.
53
An Illustrated History of Britain
The hatde of Agincourl in J415 was Henry V's most famous viclIJry against
theFrench. The ann)' with the royal standard a1tacks (left ), The
Frenchroyal standard is to beseen on theground (bott om right) as French
soldJm die. Alihough the English uere oumumberedby more than three to
one. Henry's archers destroyedtheFrenchfeudal cavalry.
54
The Wars of the Roses
Henry VI, who had become kin g as a baby , grew up
to be simple-minded and book -loving. He hared th e
warlike nobl es, and was an unsuit able king for
such a viol ent society. But he was a ci vilised and
genrle man . He founded two places of learning that
still exist, Eton College not far from London , and
King's College in Cambridge. He could happil y
have spent his life in such places of learni ng. But
Henry' s slmple- mindedness gave way to peri ods of
mental illness.
England had lost a war and was ruled by a mentally
ill king who was bad at choosing advisers. It was
perha ps natural that the nobles began to ask
questions abo ut who sho uld be ruling the country.
They remembered th at Henry's grandfather Henry
of Lancaster had taken th e throne when Richard 11
was deposed .
There were not more th an sixty noble families
controlling England at thi s ti me. Most of the m
were related to eac h ot her through marri age. Some
of the nobles were ext remely powerful. Many of
them cont inued to keep their own private armies
after ret urning from the war in France, and used
them to frighten local people into obeyi ng them.
Some of these armies were large. For example, by
1450 the duk e of Buckingham had 2,000 men in
his private army.
The discontented nobility were divided between
those who remained loya l to Henry VI, the
"Lancast rians", and th ose who support ed the duk e
of York, th e "Yorkisrs". The duke of York was the
heir of the earl of March, who had lost the
compet it ion for the th rone when Richard 11 was
deposed in 1399. In 1460 the duk e of York cla imed
the throne for himself. After hi s death in battle, hi s
son Edward took up th e struggle and won the
throne in 1461.
Edward IV put Henry into the Tower of London,
but nine years lat er a new Lancastrian army rescued
Henry and chas ed Edward out of the country. Like
the Lancast rians , Edward was able to raise ano the r
army. Edward had the advantage of hi s popularity
with the merchants of London and the southeast of
8 The crisis of kin gs and nobl cs
England. This was because the York ists had stro ngly
encouraged profitable t rade, parti cul arl y with
Burgun dy. Edward returned to England in 1471 and
defeat ed th e Lancastri ans . At last Edward IV was
safe on the throne. Henry VI di ed in the Tower of
London soon after, almost cert ainly murdered.
The war between York and Lancaster would
probably have stopped then if Edward 's son had
been old enough to rule, and if Edward 's brot he r,
Richard of Gloucester, had not been so ambitious.
But when Edward IV died in 1483, hi s own two
sons , the twel ve-year -old Edward V and his younge r
brother, were put in the Tower by Richard of
Glouces ter. Rich ard too k the Crown and became
King Richard Ill. A month lat er the two princes
were murd ered. Willi am Shakespeare's play Richard
Ill, written a century later, acc uses Richard of
murder and almost everyone beli eved it. Richard III
had a better reason than most to wish hi s two
nephews dead, but hi s gui lt has never been proved.
Richa rd III was not popular. Lan cast rians and
Yorkists bot h disliked hi m. In 1485 a cha llenge r
wit h a very distant claim to royal blood through
Joh n of Gaunt landed in England with Breron
soldiers to claim the throne. Many discontented
lords, both Lancastri ans and Yorkists, joined him.
His name was Henry Tudor, duk e of Richmond,
and he was half Welsh. He met Richard III at
Bosworth. Half of Richard's army cha nged sides,
and th e battl e qui ckl y ended in hi s defeat and
death. Henry Tudor was crowned king
immediatel y, on the battlefield.
T he war had finally ended, th ough th is could not
have been clea r at the t ime . Much later, in the
nine teenth century, the novelist Wa iter Scorr
named these wars the "Wars of the Roses" , beca use
York 's symbol was a white rose, and Lancaster' s a
red one.
The Wars of the Roses nearl y destroyed th e English
idea of kingship for ever. After 1460 th ere had been
little respect for anything except the power to take
the Crown. Tudor hi stori ans made much of these
wars and made it seem as if much of Engl and had
been destroyed. This was not true. Fighting took
place for only a tota l of fifteen months out of the
55
An Illustrated History of Britain
whole twenty-five year period. Only the nobles and
their armies were involved.
It is true, however , that the wars were a disaster for
the nobility. For the fi rst time there had been no
purpose in taking prisoners, because no one was
interested in payment of ransom. Everyone was
interested in destroying the opposing nobility.
Those capt ured in bat tle were usually killed
immediat ely. By t he rime of the bat tle of Boswort h
in 1485, the old nobi lity had neatl y destroyed itself.
Almost half the lords of the sixty noble families had
died in the wars. It was thi s fact which made it
possible for the Tudors to build a new nat ion state.
Scotland
Scotland experienced many of the disasters that
affected England at th is time. The Scot s did not
escape the Black Death or the ot he r plagues, and
they also suffered from repeated wars.
Scotland paid heavily for its "Auld Alliance" with
France. Because it supported France during the
Hundred Years War, the English repeatedly invaded
the Scort ish Lowlands, from which most of the
Scots king's wealth came. England renewed its
claim ro overlordsh ip of Scotland, and Edward IV's
army occupied Edinburgh in 1482.
Like the English kings, rhe Scott ish kings were
involved in long struggles with their nobl es.
Support for France turned att ent ion away from
establishing a strong state at home. And , as in
England, several kings di ed early. [ arnes I was
murdered in 1437, [a rnes 11 died in an accident
before he was thirt y in 1460, and [ ames III was
murdered in 1488. The early death of so many
Scot s kings left government in the hands of
powerful nobles un ti l the dead king's son was old
enough to rule. Naturally these nobles took the
chance to make their own position more powerful.
As in England, th e nobl es kept private armies,
instead of using serfs for military service as they had
done earlier. This new system fitted well with th e
Celtic tribal loyalti es of the Highlands. The Gaelic
word for such tribes. "clan". means "children", in
other words members of one famil y. But from the
56
fourteenth century, a "cl an" began to mean groups
of people occupying an area of land and following a
parti cul ar chief. Not all the members of a clan were
relat ed to each other. Some groups joined a clan for
prote cti on , or because they were forced to choose
between doing so or leaving the area. The most
powerful of the Highland clans by th e fifteent h
centu ry was Clan Dona ld. The clan chiefs were
almost completely independent .
By the end of the Middle Ages, however, Scotland
had devel oped as a nati on in a number of ways.
From 1399 the Scot s demanded that a parli ament
should meet once a year, and kings often gathe red
together leading citi zens to discuss matters of
government. As in England, towns grew in
importance, mainl y because of th e wool trade
which grew thanks to the help of Flemi sh settlers.
There was a large export trade in wool, leather and
fish, mostly to the Netherlands.
Scotl and's alliance with France brought some
benefits. At a time when much of the farmland was
repeatedly destroyed by English armies, many
Scot smen found work as soldiers for the French
king. Far more importantly. the connection with
France helped develop education in Scotl and.
Foll owing the exampl e of Paris, universities were
founded in Scotland at St Andrews in 1412,
Glasgow in 1451 and at Abe rdeen in 1495.
Scotland could rightl y claim ro be equal with
England in learning. By the end of the fifteenth
century it was obv ious that Scotland was a separate
country from England. Nobody, either in England
or in Sco tland, believed in th e English king's claim
to be overlord of Scotl and .
9 Government and society
Government and society ' The condition of women ' Language and
culture
Government and society
The year 1485 has usually been taken to mark the
end of th e Middle Ages in England. Of course,
nobody at the t ime would have seen it as such.
There was no reason to think that the new King
Henry VII would rule ove r a country any different
from the one ruled over by Richard Ill. Before
looking at the changes in England under the House
of Tudor it might be worth looking back at some of
the main social deve lopments that had taken place
in the late Midd le Ages.
Society was st ill based upon rank. At the top were
dukes, earls and other lords, although there were far
fewer as a result of war. Below these great lords
were knights. Most knights, even by Edward I's
time, were no longer heavily armed fi ghters on
horses. They were "gentlemen farmers" or "l anded
gentry" who had increased the size of their
landholdings, and improved their farming methods.
This class had grown in numbers. Edward I had
ordered that all those with an income of £20 a year
must be made knights. This meant tha t even some
Sir Geuf/rey LzmrelJ withhis family andretainers tU dinner. Food was enren WilhoUl forks, at a simple
table. However, young men in particular had to remember their manners. "Don'( sit down until you
are told to and keep your hands andfeeestill." they were wld. "Cut your bread with your knife enddo
nor tear it Don', leanon the tllbleand make a mess on the cloth or drink with a full mouth. Don',
take 50 much in your mourh lhat you cannot arnwer when someonespeaks to you. " Seoercl people
shared thesame cup, soa firu;tl piece of ad",'ice UJ(lj "wipeyour mouthandhands clean u:itha cloth. so
Uuu you do not diTty the cup and make your friends unwillingto drink with you. "
v I
nanm Olmlnl tnuomll1
l
•
57
An Illustrated Hisror v of Britain
Great Cludfield manor, rebuilt in 1480, is a fine example of a Inte Middle
Ages manor house. It was ownedby a Iocallnndowner and wwyer who, like
many of thegentry class, profi fed greatly fromthedestruction of the nobility
in the Wars of the Roses. Thefrulll of the house is almos t exactlyus it was in
1480, bw lhebuilding on theright is much later. The grem haU is
immediately inside the maincnnuncc. a I)' pieal arrangement fm' Ihis period.
of the yeoman farme rs became part of the "landed
gentry", while many "esquires", who had served
knights in earlier times, now became kni ghts
themselves. The word "esquire" became common in
written addresses, and is only now slowly beginning
to be used less.
Next to the gentlemen were the ordinary freemen
of the towns. By the end of th e Middle Ages, it was
possible for a serf from th e count ryside to work for
seven years in a town craft guild, and to become a
"freeman" of the town where he lived. The freemen
controlled the life of a town. Towns offered to poor
men the chance to become rich and successful
thro ugh trade. The most famous examp le of thi s
was Dick Whitt ington. The story tells how he
arrived in London as a poor boy from the
58
countryside, and became a successful merchant and
Lord Mayor of London three times. Whitt ington
was, actually, the son of a kni ght. He was probably
an exa mple of the growing pract ice of the land ed
families of sending younger sons to town to join a
merchant or craft guild. At the same ti me, many
successful merchant families were doing the
opposite thing, and obtaining farmland in the
countryside. These two cl asses, the land ed gentry
and the town merchants, were beginning to
overlap.
In the beginning th e guilds had been formed to
prot ect the production or trade of a who le town.
Lat er, they had come to protect those already
enj oying membershi p, or who could afford to buy
it, from the poorer classes in the same town. As
9 Government and society
A leading cirizen of Bristol is
made ma"l'f,IT, 1479. The
of rhe mayor and
alderman of a cicy was usually
conerolled by senior members of a
city's merchanr andcraft guilds.
they did not have the money or family connect ions
to become members of the guilds, the poorer skilled
workers tried to join toget her to protect their own
interests. These were the first efforts to form a trade
union. Several times in the fourtee nth century
skilled workers tri ed unsuccessfully to protect
themselves against the power of the guilds. The
lives of skilled workers were hard , but they did not
suffer as much as the unski lled, who lived in poor
and dirty conditions. However, eve n the condition
of the poorest workers in bot h town and coun try
was bett er than it had been a cent ury earlier.
In fact, the guilds were declining in importance
because of a new force in the nati onal economy.
During the fourteenth cent ury a number of English
merchants established trading stations, "factories",
in different places in Europe. The merchant
organisations necessary to operate these factories
became important at a nati onal level , and began to
replace th e old town guilds as the most powerful
trading instituti ons, However, they copied the aims
and met hods of the guilds, making sure English
merchants could only export thro ugh their
factor ies, and making sure that prices and qua lity
were maintained.
59
An Illustrated History of Britain
All women, fromlhe highest, as
in this picture. to the lowest in
the land were expectedto know
howto prepare. spinand weal't'
u. 'OO1. From Ssxon times 0 J l ~
English women were famous ferr
their embroidery skills. Women
were expected to spend theiT rimt
in embroidery orin making
garmenLS right up to the end of
the nineteenth century.
One of the most important of these factor ies was
the "Company of the Staple" in Ca lais. The
"staple" was an international term used by
merchants and government s meaning that certain
goods could only be sold in part icular places. Calais
became the "staple" for all English wool at t he end
of the fourt eent h century when it defeat ed rival
English factories in other foreign citi es. The stap le
was an arrangement which suited the established
merchants. as it prevented competition. and it also
suited the Crown. whic h could tax exports more
easily. The ot her important company was called the
"Merchant Advent urers". During the fourtee nth
cent ury there had been several Merchant
60
Advent urers' factor ies in a number of foreign
towns. But all of th em. except for the Merchant
Adventurers in Antwerp , Flanders. closed during
the fifteent h century. The Antwerp Merchant
Adv ent urers' factory survived because of its sole
control of cloth exports. a fact recognised by royal
charter.
Wages for farmworkers and for skilled townspeople
rose faster tha n the price of goods in the fi fteenth
cent ury. There was plenty of meat and cereal prices
were low. But the re were warn ing signs of problems
ahead. More and more good land was being used for
sheep instead of food crops . Rich and powerful
sheep farmers started to fence in land which had
always been used by othe r villagers. In the
sixteenth century this led to social and econo mic
crisis.
Meanwhi le , in the towns, a new middle class was
developing. By the fifteenth century most
merchants were well educa ted, and considered
themselves to be the equals of the esquires and
gentlemen of the count ryside. The lawyers were
anothe r class of city peopl e. In London they were
considered equal in importance to the big
merchants and clorh manufacturers. When law
schoo ls were first est ablished, student lawyers lived
in inns on the weste rn side of the City of London
while they studied. Slowly these inns became part
of the law schools, just as the st udent
accommodat ion hall s of Oxford and Cambridge
event ually became the co lleges of these two
universities.
By the end of the Midd le Ages the more successful
of these lawyers, merchants, cloth manufact urers,
exporters, esquires, gentlemen and yeoman farmers
were increasingly forming a single class of people
with interests in both town and count ry. This was
also true in Wales and Scotland. A number of
Welsh landowners came to England; some studied
at Oxford, and some traded, or pract ised law in
London . Fewer Scots came to England , because
they had th eir own universit ies, and their own
trade centres of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
The growt h of this new middl e class, educated and
skilled in law, administra t ion and t rade, created a
new at mosphere in Britain. Thi s was partly because
of the increase in literacy. Indeed, the middle class
could be descri bed as th e "literate class". This
litera te class quest ioned the way in which th e
Church and the state were organised, for both
religious and pract ical reasons. On the religious side
support for Wycliffe came mainl y from members of
this new middle cl ass, who believed it was the ir
right to read th e Bible in th e English language.
They disliked serfdom partl y because it was now
increas ingly viewed as unchristian ; but also for the
pract ical reason that it was nor eco nomic. The
middl e class also quest ion ed the value of the feudal
system because it did not create wealt h.
9 Govcmmcnr and sccierv
The development of Parli amen t at this time showed
the beginnings of a new relat ionship between the
middle class and the king. Edward I had invited
kni ght s from the count ry and merchants from the
towns to his parliament because he wanted money
and they, more than any othe r group, could provide
it. But whe n Edward III asked for money from hi s
parl iament, they asked to see the royal accounts. It
was an important development because for the first
ti me the king allowed hi mself to be "acco untable"
to Parli ament. Merch ants and country gentlemen
were very anxious to influence the king's policies
both at home and abroad. They wanted to protect
the ir interests. When France threatened the wool
trade wit h Flanders, for example, they supported
Edward III in hi s war.
During the time of Edward Ill's reign Parli ament
became organised in two part s: the Lords, and the
Commons, which represented the middle class.
Only those commoners with an income of fort y
shillings or more a year could qualify to be members
of Parli ament. Thi s meant th at th e poor had no
way of being heard except by rebellion. The poor
had no voice of the ir own in Parli ament until th e
middle of the ni neteenth century.
The all iance between esquires and mer chants made
Parl iament more powerful, and separated the
Commons more and more from the Lords. Many
European countries had the same kind of
parliaments at this time, but in most cases these
disappeared when feudalism died out. In England ,
however, the deat h of feudalism helped strengthen
th e House of Commons in Parl iament.
There was anothe r importa nt change tha t had
taken place in the country. Kings had been taking
law cases away from local lords' courts since the
twelfth century, and by the middle of the
fourt eent h century the courts of local lords no
longer existed. But the king's courts could not deal
wit h all the wor k. In 1363 Edward III appointed
"justices of the peac e" to deal with smaller crimes
and offences , and to hold court four times a year.
These JPs, as they became known, were usually less
important lords or members of the landed gentry.
They were, and st ill are, chose n for their fairness
61
An Illustrated History of Britain
and hon esty. The appo int ment of landed gent ry as
JPs made the middle classes, that class of peopl e
who were neit her nob les nor peasants, st ill
stronger. Through th e system of JPs th e landed
gentry took the place of the nobility as the local
aurhorirv. During the Wars of the Roses the nobles
used their pri vate armies to force JPs and judges to
do what they wanted. But th is was the last time the
nobility in Britai n tried to destroy the aut hority of
the king. The JPs remained the only form of local
government in the countrys ide unt il 1888. They
still exist to deal with small offences.
The condition of women
Littl e is known about the life of women in the
Middle Ages, but witho ut doubt it was hard. The
Church taught that women should obey their
husbands. It also spread two very di fferent ideas
about women: that they should be pure and holy
like the Virgin Mary; and that, like Eve, they could
not be trusted and were a moral danger to men.
Such reli gious teaching led men both to worship
-and also to look down on wome n, and led women
to give in to men's authority.
Marriage was usuall y the single most important
event in the lives of men and women. But the
dec ision itself was made by the family, not the
coup le th emselves. This was because by marriage a
family could improve its wealth and social position.
Everyone, bot h rich and poor , married for mainly
financial reasons. Once married , a woman had to
accept her husband as her master. A disobedient
wife was usuall y beaten . It is unlikely that love
played much of a part in most marr iages.
The fi rst duty of every wife was to give her husband
children, preferably sons. Because so many children
died as babies, and because there was littl e that
could be done if a birth went wrong, producing
children was dangerous and exhausting. Yet this
was the futur e for every wife from twenty or
younger until she was forty.
The wife of a noble had ot her responsibili ties.
When her lord was away, she was in cha rge of th e
manor and the village lands, all the servants and
62
Women defending their casrle. Throughoul theMiddle Ages, ifa castle or
manor Uill au-xked u:hile its lord \Lw awa)' . it Uill the dutyof 1W u>ife. !he
"chatelalne" (or "casrlekeeper"). to defend it. A /ad)' had to know
etleT)'rhing aboul administering her lord's manor andlands, forshe \LW
resporuible \L'hen hewas away, One lady \L'M did norcompletely rrust ha
lord's abiliry to manage while she was awa)' . wrote to him, "Keep allweU
about you till I come home. andtreat nut [do norenter intobusiness
alTangements} withourme. andrhen all rhi1lRs shall bewell. "
villagers, th e harvest and the an imals. She also had
to defend the manor if it was attacked. She had to
run the household, welcome visitors. and store
enough food, including salted meat , for winter. She
was expected to have enough knowledge of herbs
and plants to make suitab le medicin es for those in
the village who were sick. She proba bly visited the
poor and the sick in the village, showing th at the
9 Gcvc mmenr and society
BayLeafFarm. a fifteen f.h-century Kent farmhouse. a limber-framebuilding
with waIls made of "wat lle anddaub". basically sticksandmud. This wasa
very ef!eClil,,'f! rypeof building, but requiTed skilled carpenters to !1'U1ke a
srrong frame. One man who did nor like this J1t'Wmethod called f.hese houses
link more than "paper wark". But examples are sliUlived in as ordinary
homes inmanyparrs of England.
rulers "cared" for them. She had littl e t ime for her
own children, who in any case were often sent away
at the age of eight to another manor, the boys to
"be made into men".
Most women, of course, were peasants, busy
making food, making cloth and making clothes
from the c1orh. They worked in the fi elds, looked
after the children, the geese, the pigs and the
sheep, made the cheese and grew the vegetables.
The animals probably shared th e famil y shel ter at
night. The family home was dark and smell y.
A woman' s posit ion improved if her husband died.
She could get control of th e money her family had
given the husband at the t ime of marriage, usually
about one-third of his total land and wealth. But
she might have to marry again : men wanted her
land, and it was difficult to look after it without the
help of a man.
63
An Illustrated History of Britain
Language and culture
With the spread of literacy, cultural life in Britain
naturally developed also. In the cities, plays were
performed at important religious festivals. They
were called "mystery plays" because of the
mysterious nature of events in the Bible, and they
were a popular form of culture. In the larger ci ties
some guilds made the mselves respon sible for
particul ar plays, which became tradit ion al yearly
events.
The language itself was cha nging. French had been
used less and less by the Nor man rulers during the
thirteent h century. In the fourteent h century
Edward III had actually forbidden the speaking of
French in his army. It was a way of making the
whole army aware of its Englishness.
After the Norman Conquest English (t he old
Anglo-Saxon language) conti nued to be spoken by
ordinary people but was no longer writt en . By the
end of the fourteenth century, however, English
was once again a written language , because it was
being used instead of French by the ruling, literate
class. But "Middle English", the language of the
fourteenth and fi fteenth centuries, was very
different from Anglo-Saxon, This was partly
because it had not been writt en for three hundred
years, and partl y because it had borrowed so much
from Norman French.
Two writers, above all ot hers, hel ped in the rebirth
of English literature. One was Willi am Langland, a
mid-four teenth ce ntury priest , whose poem Piers
Plowman gives a powerful descr ipt ion of the times
in which he lived. The othe r, Geoffrey Cha ucer,
has become much more famous. He lived at about
the same time as Langland. His most famous work
was The Tales, writte n at the end of the
fourteent h ce ntury.
Th e Canterbury T ales describe a group of pilgrims
travelling from London to the tomb of Thomas
Becker at Canterbury, a common reli gious act in
England in the Middle Ages. During the journey
each characte r tells a story. Collections of stor ies
were popular at this t ime because almost all
literature, unlike today. was written to be read out
64
aloud. The stor ies themselves are not Cha ncer's
own. He used old stories, but rewrote th em in an
interesting and amusing way. The first chapter, in
which he describes his cha racters, is the result of
Chancer's own deep understanding of human
nature. It remains astonishingly fresh even after six
hundred years. It is a unique descrip tion of a
nation: young and old, kni ght and peasant , priest
and merchant , good and bad, townsman and
countryman. Here is part of Cha ncer's descript ion
(in a modernised version) of the kni ght , and his
son, the squire:
There was a knight , a most distinguished man,
Who from the day on which he fi rst began
To ride abroad had followed chivalry,
Truth. honour, generousness and co urtesy . ..
He had his son with him, a fine young squire,
A lover and cadet , a lad of fi re
With locks as curly as if they had been pressed.
He was some twen ty years of age, I guessed
He was embroidered like a meadow bright
And full of freshest flowers, red and whi te.
Singing he was, or fl ut ing all the day;
He was as fresh as is the month of May.
Short was his gown, the sleeves were long and
wide;
He knew the way to sit a horse and ride.
He could make songs and poems and reci te,
Knew how to joust and dance , to draw and write.
He loved so hotl y t hat ti ll dawn grew pale
He slept as little as a nightingale.
By the end of the Middl e Ages, English as well as
Latin was being used in legal writing, and also in
elementary schools. Educat ion developed
enormously dur ing the fi fteenth century, and many
schools were founded by powerful men. One of
these was William of Wykeham, Bishop of
Winchester and Lord Cha ncellor of England, who
founded bot h Winchester Schoo l, in 1382, and
New College, Oxford. Like Henry VI's lat er
foundarions at Eton and Ca mbridge they have
remained famous for their high quality. Many ot her
schools were also opened at this time, because th ere
was a growing need for educated people who could
administer the government , the Church , the law
and trade. Clerks started grammar schools whe re
students could learn the ski lls of reading and
writing. These schools offered the ir pupil s a future
in the Church or the civil service, or at the
universities of Oxford and Ca mbridge. The
universit ies themselves continued to grow as
colleges and halls where the students could both
live and be taught were built. The college system
remains the basis of organisation in these two
universities.
The Middl e Ages ended with a major technical
development: Wi lliam Caxron's first English
print ing press, set up in 1476. Caxton had learnt
the skill of print ing in Germany, At first he printed
popular books, such as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
and Malory's Morte J'Arthur. This prose work
described th e advent ures of the legendary King
Arthur, incl udi ng Arthur's last bat tle , hi s death,
and the death of othe r knights of the Round Table.
Almost certa inly Malory had in mind the
destructi on of th e English nobil ity in the Wars of
the Roses, whi ch were taking place as he wrot e,
Caxron's printing press was as dramat ic for his age
as radio, television and the technological
revoluti on ate for our own. Books suddenly became
cheaper and more plentiful, as the quic ker printing
process replaced slow and expensive copywriting by
hand. Print ing began ro standardise spelling and
grammar, though this process was a long one . More
important, just as radio brought information and
ideas to the illiterate people of the twent iet h
century, Caxron's press provided books for the
9 Govcrn rncnr andsociety
newly educated people of the fifteent h century, and
encouraged literacy. Caxron avoided pr int ing any
dangerous literature. But the children and
grandchildren of these literate people were to use
printing as a powerful weapon ro cha nge the world
in whi ch they lived.
Thechapel of King's College, Cambridge, with its fan-vaulted roofandlarge
areas of glass anddelicate stone work, marks the highest point of Gochic
architecture inETlRland. Thet 'ttu/[ wa.s completedtU che beginninR" of che
sixteenthcentury. andthe uooden crrganscreen ccross the centreof the chapel
is of Tl«ltrr design.
65
66
The Tudors
10 The birth of the nation state
The new monarchy' The Reformation' The Protestant- Catholic
struggle
The century of Tudor rule (1485-1603) is often
thought of as a most glorious period in English
history. Henr y Vll built the foundat ions of a
wealthy nati on state and a powerful mon archy. His
son, Henry Vlil, kept a magnificent court , and
made the Church in England truly English by
breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church.
Finally, his daughter Elizabeth brought glory to the
new state by defeating the powerful navy of Spain,
the greatest European power of the time. During
the Tudor age England experienced one of th e
greatest art ist ic periods in its history.
There is, however, a less glor ious view of the Tudor
century. Henry Vlil wasted the wealth saved by his
father. Elizabeth weakened the quality of
government by selling official posts. She did thi s to
avoid asking Parliament for money. And although
her gove rnment tried to deal with the problem of
poor and home less people at a time when prices
rose much faster than wages, its laws and acti ons
were often cruel in effect.
The new monarchy
Henry Vll is less wel l known than either Henry
Vlil or Elizabeth I. But he was far more important
in estab lishing the new monarchy than either of
Left: The defeat of [he Spanish Arnuu1a in /588 Wl15 the mOSIglorious event
ofElizabeth1'5 reign. It marked the arrival of Englandas a great
European sea power, leading[he way to the development of theempireover
!he next two centuries. Ir also markedthelimit of Spain's ability to recapture
Protestant countriesfor the Catholic Church.
Right: Henry Vll was clever withpeople and careful withmoney. He holds
a redLancastrian rose in his hand, burhe brought unit)· to the Houses of
YorkandLancaster. His successors symbolised this unity by use of a red rose
I.Jo'ilh white outet petaL>. the "T udor" rose.
them. He had the same ideas and opinions as the
growing classes of merchants and gentleman
farmers, and he based royal power on good business
sense.
Henry VII firmly believed that war and glory were
bad for business, and that business was good for the
state. He th erefore avoided quarrels either with
Scotland in the north, or France in the south.
67
An Illustrated History of Britain
During the fifteenth century, but parti cularl y during
th e Wars of the Roses, Engl-and's trading positi on
had bee n badl y damaged. T he stro ng Germa n
Hanseati c League, a closed trading society, had
destroyed English trade with the Balt ic and
northern Europe. Trade with Italy and France had
also been reduced after England's defeat in France
in the mid-fifteenth century. T he Low Countries
(t he Nethe rlands and Belgium) alone offered a way
in for trade in Europe. Only a year after hi s victory
at Boswort h in 1485, Henry VU made an impor tan t
trade agree ment wit h the Nethe rlands which
allowed English trade to grow again.
Henry was fortunate. Many of th e old nobility had
died or bee n defeated in the recent wars, and the ir
Henry VlIl, by the greatcourt painter Ham Holbein. Henry was hard,
cruel, ambitious and calculating. Fewsurvived hisanger. Heexecuted [WO of
his waes. Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, and several of his ministers
and leading churchmen. Best knownamong these were his Lord Chancellor,
ThoT1U1S More, and hisassistant in carryingOld the Reformation, Thomas
Cromwell.
68
lands had gone to the king. This mea nt th at Henry
had more power and more money than earlier
kings. In order to establish hi s authority beyond
quest ion, he forbade anyone , except himself, to
keep armed men.
The authority of t he law had bee n almost
completely destroyed by the lawless behaviour of
nobl es and the ir armed men. Henry used t he
"Court of Star Cha mber", tradit iona lly the kin g's
counc il chamber, to deal wit h lawless nobles, Local
justice that had broken down during the wars slowly
began to operate agai n. Henry encouraged th e use
of heavy fines as punis hment because t his gave the
Crown money.
Henry's aim was to make the Crown financially
independent, and th e lands and th e fines he took
from th e old no bilit y helped him do t his. Henry
also raised taxes for wars which he the n did not
fight . He never spent money unl ess he had to. One
might expect Henry to have bee n un pop ular, but
he was careful to keep the friendship of the
merch an t and lesser gentry cl asses. Like him th ey
wanted peace and prosperitv, He created a new
nobility from among them, and men unknown
before now became Henry's statesmen. But th ey all
knew th at th eir rise to importance was completely
dependent on the Crown.
When He nry died in 1509 he left behind the huge
tota l of £2 milli on, abo ut fiftee n years' wort h of
income. The only thing on which he was happy to
spend money freely was the building of ships for a
merchant fleet. Henr y understood earl ier th an most
people that England's fut ure wea lth would depend
on internati on al trade. And in order to trade,
Hen ry realised that England must have its own fleet
of merchant shipso
Henry VIll was quite unli ke his fat he r. He was
cruel, wasteful with money. and interested in
pleasing himself. He wanted to become an
important influence in European politics. But much
had happened in Europe since England had given
up its efforts to defeat France in the Hundred Years
War. France was no w mor e powerful than England,
and Spain was even more powe rful, because it was
united with the Hol y Roman Empire (whic h
included much of central Europe). Henry VIII
wanted England to hold the balance of power
between these two giants. He fi rst unsuccessfully
allied himself with Spai n, and when he was not
rewarded he cha nged sides. When friendship wit h
France did not bring him anything, Henry started
talking again to Cha rles V of Spain.
Henry's failure to gain an important position in
European poli tics was a bitt er disappointment . He
spent so much on maintaining a magnificent court,
and on wars from whi ch England had littl e to gain,
that his fat he r's carefully saved money was soon
gone. Gold and silver from newly discovered
America added to economic inflation. In this
serious financial crisis, Henry needed money. One
way of doing this was by reducing th e amount of
silver used in coins. But although this gave Henry
immediate profits, it rapid ly led to a rise in prices.
It was therefore a damaging policy, and th e English
coinage was reduced to a seventh of its value within
twen t y-five years.
The Reformation
Henry VIII was always looking for new sources of
money. His fathe r had become powerful by taking
over the nobles' land. hut the lands owned by the
Church and the monasteries had not been touched.
The Church was a huge landowner, and the
monasteries were no longer important to economic
and social growth in the way they had been two
hundred years earlier. In fact they were unpopular
because many mon ks no longer led a good religious
life but lived in wealth and comfort.
Henry disliked the power of the Church in England
because, since it was an international organisation,
he could not complete ly control it. If Henry had
been powerful eno ugh in Europe to influence the
pope it might have been different. But the re were
two far more powerful states, France, and Spain.
with the Holy Roman Empire, lying bet ween him
and Rome. The power of the Catholic Church in
England cou ld therefore work against his own
author ity, and the taxes paid to th e Church
10 The birth of the nation state
reduced his own income. Hen ry was not the only
European king with a wish to "centralise" state
autho rity. Many others were doing the same thing.
But Henry had anot her reason for standing up to
the authority of the Church .
In 1510 Henry had married Catherine of Aragon,
the widow of his elder brot he r Arthur. But by 1526
she had still not had a son who survived infancy
and was now unlikely to do so. Henry tr ied to
persuade the pope to allow him to divorce
Ca rherine. Nor mally, Henry need not have
expected any difficulty. His ~ h i e f minister, Ca rdinal
Wolsey, had already been skilful in advising on
Henry's foreign and home policy. Wolsey hoped
th at his skills, and hi; important position in the
Church, would be successful in persuading the
pope. But the pope was controlled by Charles V,
who was Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain,
and also Carherine's nephew. For both political and
family reasons he wanted Henry to stay married to
Carherinc. The pope did not wish to anger eithe r
Charles or Henry, but eventually he was forced to
do as Charles V wanted. He forbade Henry's
divorce.
Henry was extremely angry and the fi rst person to
feel his anger was his own minister, Ca rdinal
Wolsey. Wolsey only escaped execution by dying of
natural causes on his way to the king's court, and
after Wolsey no priest ever again became an
important mini ster of the king. In 1531 Henry
persuaded the bishops to make him head of the
Church in England , and this became law after
Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534. It
was a popular deci sion. Henry was now free to
di vorce Carherine and marry his new love, Anne
Boleyn. He hoped Anne would give him a son to
follow him on the throne .
Henry's break with Rome was purely political. He
had simply wanted to control the Church and to
keep its wealth in his own kingdom. He did not
approve of the new ideas of Reformation
Prot estanti sm introduced by Mart in Luther in
Germany and John Calvin in Geneva. He st ill
believed in the Catholic faith. Indeed, Henry had
earlier written a book crit icising Luther' s teaching
69
An Illustrated History of Britai n
and the pope had rewarded him with the titl e Fidei
Defensor, Defender of the Faith. The pope must
have regretted his act ion. The letters ''F.D." are
st ill to be found on every British coin.
Like his father, Henry VIll governed England
th rough his close advisers, men who were
completely dependent on him for their position .
But when he broke with Rome, he used Parli ament
to make the break legal. Through several Acts of
Parli ament between 1532 and 1536, England
became pol itically a Protestant count ry, even
though the popular religion was st ill Ca tholic.
Once England had accep ted th e separation from
Rome Henry took the English Reformati on a step
furt he r. Wolsey's place as the king's chief mini ster
was taken by one of his assistants, Thomas
Cromwel l. Henry and Crornwell made a careful
survey of Church propert y, the first properly
organised tax survey since the Domesday Book 450
years earlier. Between 1536 and 1539 th ey closed
560 monasteries and ot her religious houses. Henry
did this in order to make money, but he also
wanted to be popular with the rising classes of
landowners and merchants. He therefore gave or
sold much of the monasteries' lands to the m. Man y
smaller landowners made their fortunes. Most
knocked down the old monastery build ings and
used the stone to create magnificent new houses for
themselves. Other buildings were just left ro fall
down .
Meanwhil e the monks and nuns were thrown OUL
Some were give n small sums of mone y, but many
were unable to find work and became wand ering
beggars. The dissoluti on of the monasteries was
proba bly the greate st act of official destruct ion in
the history of Britain.
Henry proved that his break with Rome was neither
a reli gious nor a diplomati c disaster. He remained
loyal to Catholic religious teaching, and exec uted
Protestants who refused to accept it. He even made
an alliance with Cha rles V of Spa in against France.
For poli tical reasons both of them were willing to
forget the quarrel ove r Cathe rine of Aragon, and
also England's break with Rome.
Henry died in 1547, leaving behind his sixth wife,
Carhe rine Parr , and his three children. Mary, the
eldest , was the daught er of Ca rher ine of Aragon.
Elizabeth was the daughter of his second wife,
Anne Boleyn, whom he had executed because she
was unfaithful. Nine-year-old Edward was the son
of [ ane Seymour, the only wife whom Henry had
reall y loved, but who had died giving birth to his
only son.
70
The ruins of Fountairn Abbey in
YorkJhire, one of ,hegreatest and
weal'hies, English monasteries.
It finally surrendered la Henry's
reformarion in 1539. The scained
glass andlead u,i ndow frames
androofing uere retnOt-'ed
immediately. But it «us nol until
161 1 that .some of thestone «us
raken CO build Founcains Hall.
nearby. Eoen so, Ute abbe, u.w
so huge chat most of Ute srcne
wasnever raken andUte abbey
survived as a ruin.
The Protestant-Catholic struggle
Edward VL, Henry VIII's son, was only a child
when he became king, so the country was ruled by
a council. All the members of thi s council were
from the new nob ility create d by the Tudors. They
were keen Protestant reformers because they had
benefited from the sale of monastery lands. Indeed,
all the new landowners knew that they could only
be sure of keeping their new lands if they made
England truly Protestant .
Most English peop le st ill believed in rhe old
Cat holic religion. Less tha n half the English were
Protestant by bel ief, but these people were allowed
to take a lead in religious matters. In 1552 a new
prayer book was introduced to make sure that all
churches followed the new Prote stant religion .
Most peopl e were not very happy with the new
religion. They had been glad to see the end of some
of the Church's bad practi ces like the selling of
"pardons" for the forgiven ess of sins. But they did
not like th e changes in belief, and in some places
there was troub le.
Marv, the Catholic daughter of Catherine of
Aragon, became queen when Edward, aged sixteen,
died in 1553. A group of nobles tried to put Lady
10 The birth of the nation stare
[ ane Grey, a Protestant, on the throne. But Mary
succeeded in entering London and took control of
the kingdom. She was supported by the ordinary
people, who were angered by the greed of the
Protestant nobles,
However, Mary was unwise and unbending in her
policy and her bel iefs. She was the first quee n of
England since Marilda, 400 years earlier. At that
time women were considered to be inferior [ 0 men.
The marriage of a queen was therefore a diffi cult
matter. If Mary married an Englishman she would
be under th e control of a man of lesser importance.
If she married a foreigner it might place England
under foreign control.
Mary, for political , religious and family reasons,
chose to marry King Phil ip of Spa in. It was an
unfortunat e choice. The ordina ry peopl e disliked
th e marriage, as Phi lip's Span ish friends in England
were quick to notice. Popul ar feeling was so strong
that a rebellion in Kent actua lly reached London
before ending in failure. Mary dealt cruelly wit h the
rebel leader , Wyatt, but she took the unusual step
of asking Parli ament for its opinion about her
marriage plan. Parli ament unwi llingly agreed to
Marv's marriage, and it only accepted Phi lip as king
of England for Marv's lifetime.
A ProteSfant propaganda picrurt of Edu!ard VI
bring told by hisdying father. Henry Vlll . re
uphold the true Prolw ant rtligion. At
EdUJard'sfter thepope collapses deftated.
Under EdUlard England became farmore
ProteSfant rhan befare. andmort Prcrestenr.
probabb, than his farher intt nded. The young
kiJJg wasassisted b). men who had profited from
Church lands andproperryafra the break with
Rome.
71
An Illustrated History of Britain
Mary's marriage to Phili p was the first mistake of
her unfortunate reign. She then began burning
Protestant s. Three hund red people died in this way
dur ing her fi ve-year reign, and the burnings began
to sicken peopl e. At the same time, the thought of
becoming a junior ally of Spain was very unpopular.
Only the knowledge that Mary her self was dying
prevented a popul ar rebelli on.
Elizabeth, Mary's half sister, was lucky to become
queen when Mary died in 1558. Mary had
considered killing her , because she was an obvious
leader for Protestant revolt. Elizabeth had been wise
enough to say not hing, do nothing, and to express
neither Catholic nor Protestant views whi le Mary
lived. And Phi lip persuaded Mary to leave
Elizabeth unharmed.
When she became queen in 1558, Elizabeth I
wanted to find a peaceful answer to the problems of
the English Reformat ion. She wanted to bring
toget he r again those parts of English society which
were in religious disagreement. And she wanted to
make England prosperous. In some ways the kind of
Prot estantism fi nally agreed in 1559 remained closer
to the Cat holic religion than to othe r Prot estant
groups. But Elizabeth made sure that the Church
was st ill unde r her aut hor ity, unlike polit ically
dange rous forms of Protestantism in Europe. In a
way, she made the Church part of the state
machine.
The "parish" , the area served by one church,
usually the same size as a village, became the unit
of state administrat ion. People had to go to church
on Sundays by law and they were fined if they
stayed away. This meant that the parish priest, the
"parson" or "vicar", became almost as powerful as
the village squire. Elizabeth also arranged for a book
of sermons to be used in church. Although most of
the sermons consisted of Bible teaching, thi s book
also taught the people that rebellion against the
Crown was a sin against God.
The struggle between Catholics and Protestants
cont inued to endanger Elizabeth's position for the
next thi rt y years. Both France and Spain were
Catholic. Elizabet h and her advisers wanted to
avoid open qua rrels wit h bot h of them. This was
72
not easy, because both the French and Spanish
kings wanted to marry Elizabeth and so join
England to their own country. Elizabeth and her
advisers knew how much damage Mary had done
and that it was important that she should avoid
such a marriage. At the same time, however, there
was a danger that the pope would persuade Catholic
count ries to attack England . Finally, there was a
danger from those Catholic nobl es st ill in England
who wished to remove Elizabeth and replace her
with the queen of Sco tland, who was a Catholic.
Mary, the Scott ish queen, usually called "Queen of
Scots" , was the heir to the English throne because
she was Elizabeth's closest living relative, and
because Elizabet h had not married. Mary's mother
had been French, and Mary had spent her
childhood in France, and was a strong Catholic.
When she returned to rule Scotland as queen , Mary
soon made enemies of some of her nob les, and to
avoid them she finally escaped to the safety of
England. Elizabet h, however , kept Mary as a
prisoner for almost twenty years. During that time
Elizabet h discovered several secret Catholic plots,
some of which clear ly aimed at making Mary queen
of England.
It was difficult for Elizabeth to decide what to do
with Mary. She knew that France was unlikel y to
attack England in suppor t of Mary. But she was
afraid that Spain might do so. Marv's close
connection with France. howe ver, was Cl
discouragement to Philip. He would nor wish to
defeat Elizabeth only to put Mar y on the throne. It
would be giving England to the French . So for a
long time Elizabeth just kept Mary as a prisone r.
When Elizabeth finally agreed to Marv's execution
in 1587, it was partl y because Mary had named
Philip as her heir to the th rone of England , and
because with thi s claim Philip of Spain had decided
to invade England . Elizabeth no longer had a
reason to keep Mary alive. In England Mary's
execution was popular. The Catholic plot s and the
dangers of a foreign Catholic invasion had changed
people's feelings. By 1585 most English peopl e
bel ieved that to be a Catholic was to be an enemy
of England. This hatred of everyth ing Cat holic
became an important political force.
11 England and her neighbours
The new foreign policy ' The new trading empire ' Wales' Ireland·
Scotland and England ' Mary Queen of Scots and the Scottish
Reformation' A Scottish king for England
The new foreign policy
During the Tudor period, from 1485 until 1603,
English foreign policy changed severa l t imes. But
by the end of the period England had established
some basic principles. Henr y VII had been careful
to remain friend ly with neighbouring countries. His
son, Henry VIII, had been more ambitious, hoping
to play an important part in European politics. He
was unsuccessful. Mary allied England to Spain by
her marriage. This was not only unpopular but was
politica lly unwise: England had nothing to gain
from being allied to a more powerful country.
Elizabet h and her advisers considered trade the
most important foreign policy matt er, as Henry VII
had done. For the m whichever country was
England's greates t trade rival was also its greatest
enemy. Th is idea remained the basis of England's
foreign policy until the nineteenth century.
Elizabeth's grandfather, Henry VII, had recognised
the importance of trade and had built a large fl eet
of merchant ships. Hi s son, Henry VIII, had spent
money on warships and guns, making English guns
the best in Europe.
Elizabeth's foreign policy carried Henry VII's work
much further. encouraging merchant expansion.
She correctly recogni sed Spain as her main trade
rival and enemy. Spain at that time ruled th e
Net herlands, altho ugh many of the people were
Protestant and were fight ing for their independence
from Cat holic Spanish rule. Because Spain and
France were rivals, Spanish soldiers could only
reach the Netherlands from Spain by sea. This
meant sailing up the English Channel. Elizabeth
helped the Dutch Prot estants by allowing their
ships to use English harbours from which they could
attack Spanish ships, often with the hel p of the
English. When it looked as if the Dut ch rebels
might be defeated, after they lost th e city of
Antwe rp in 1585, Elizabeth agreed to help them
with money and soldiers. It was almost an ope n
declarat ion of war on Spa in.
English ships had already been attacki ng Spanish
ships as th ey ret urned from Amer ica loaded with
silver and gold. Th is had been going on since about
1570, and was the result of Spain's refusal to allow
England to trade freely with Spanish Ame rican
colonies. Although these English ships were
private ly owned "privateers", the treasure was
shared with the queen . Elizabeth apologised to
Spain but kept her sha re of wha t had been taken
from Spanish ships. Philip knew quite well that
Elizabeth was encouraging the "sea dogs", as th ey
were known. These seamen were traders as well as
pirat es and adventurers. The most famous of th em
were John Hawkins. Francis Drake and Martin
Frobisher, but there were many ot hers who were
also trying to build English sea trade and to
int errupt Spa in's.
Phili p decided to conquer England in 1587 because
he believed thi s had to be done before he would be
able to defeat the Dutch rebels in the Ne therlands.
He hoped that enough Catholics in England would
be willing to help him. Philip's large army was
already in the Netherlands. He built a great fleet of
ships, an "Armada", to move his army across the
73
An Illustrated History of Britain
Elizabeth triumphant The
famous "Armada pomait"
shows the Spanish Armada infuU
sail (left) andwrecked upon
Ireland's shores (right). Under
Elizabeth's riJ{hl hand lies the
world, a reference to Frcncs
Drake's successful voyage around
the world, the expeditions of
other explorers, and England's
growing secpower. Elizabeth
enjoyed glory, andher great
vanity shows in this portrait.
Engl ish Channel from th e Netherlands. But in
1587 Francis Drake attacked and destroyed part of
th is fleet in Cadiz harbour.
Philip started agai n, and built the largest fl eet that
had ever gone to sea. But most of th e ships were
designed to carry soldiers, and the few fight ing ships
were not as good as the English ones. English ships
were longer and narrower, so that they were faster,
and their guns could also shoot furt her than the
Spanish ones.
Whe n news of this Armada reached England in
summer 1588, Elizabeth called her soldiers
together. She won their heart s with well-chosen
words: "I am come . . . to live or die amongst you
all, to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom,
and for my people, my honour and my blood even
in the dust. I know I have th e body of a weak and
feeble woman, but I have the hear t and stomach of
a king, and of a king of England too."
The Spanish Armada was defeated more by bad
weather than by English guns. Some Spanish ships
were sunk , but most were blown northwards by the
wind, many being wrecked on the rocky coasts of
Scotland and Ireland. For England it was a
glor ious moment, but it did not lead to an end of
the war with Spain, and England found itself
74
having to spend more than ever on England's
defence. Peace was only made with Spain once
Elizabet h was dead.
The new trading empire
Both before and after the Armada, Elizabet h
followed two policies. She encouraged English
sailors like John Hawkins and Francis Drake to
continue to attack and dest roy Spanish ships
bringing gold, silver and other treasures back from
th e newly discovered cont ine nt of America. She
also encouraged English traders to settle abroad and
to create colonies. This second policy led directly
to Britain's colonial empire of th e seventeent h and
eighteenth ce nt uries.
The fi rst English colonists sailed to America
towards the end of th e century. One of the best
known was Sir Wa iter Raleigh, who brought
tobacco back to England. The set tlers tried without
success to start profitable co lon ies in Virginia,
whic h was na med after Elizabeth, the "v irgin" or
unmarried queen. But th ese were on ly beginnings.
England also began selling West African slaves to
work for the Spanish in Amer ica. Joh n Hawkins
carried his first slave cargo in 1562. By 1650 slavery
had become an important trade , bringing wealth
, ! _ . _ ',!, _ l
,....
: 1; _1"1 , . '1 , I ,H
...
" :-"
11 England and her neighhours
A mapof the WOTld dTawn in the
early years ofthe sirreenlh
cen[ury shows geographical
knou/ledge decreasing IJ.'i rh
distancefrom Europe, AUSlTalia.
farexample, is sou complerely
unknoun, Ewn so. this map u.us
a great imprOtoernent on
geographical knowledge a cenlury
eaTlier, By the end of the century
faT mere accurate mapswere
appearing,
particularly to Bristol in southwest England. It took
unt il the end of the eighteenth century for this
trade to be ended.
This growth of trade abroad was not ent irely new.
The Merchant Adventurers Company had already
been established with royal support before the end
of the fi fteenth century. During Elizabeth's reign
more "chartered" companies, as they were known,
were established. A "charter" gave a company the
right to all the business in its particular trade or
region. In return for thi s important advantage the
chartered company gave some of its profits to the
Crown. A number of th ese companies were
established during Elizabeth's reign: the Eastland
Company to trade with Scandinavia and the Balti c
in 1579; the Levant Company to trade with the
Ottoman Empire in 1581; the Africa Company to
trade in slaves, in 1588; and the East Indi a
Company to trade with India in 1600.
The East India Company was established mainl y
because the Dutch controlled the enti re spice trade
with the East Indi es (Indonesia) . Spices were
extremely impor tant for making th e winter salted
meat tastier. The English were det ermined to have
a share in this rich trade , but were unsuccessful.
However, the East Indi a Company did begin to
operate in Indi a, Persia and even in Japan , where it
had a trading stat ion from 1613- 23. The quarrel
over spices was England' s fi rst difficul ty with the
Dutch. Before the end of the sevent eent h century
trading compet ition with the Dut ch had led to
three wars,
Wales
Closer to home, the Tudors did the ir best to bring
Wales, Ireland and Sco tland under English control.
Henry VII was half Welsh. At th e battle of
Bosworth in 1485 Henry's flag was the red dragon
of Wales. It had been the badge of the legendary
last British (Welsh) king to fi ght against the
Saxons. At the time , Caxton was printing Malory's
poem Morte d'Arthur. Henry cleverl y made the
most of popular "Arrhurian" int erest to suggest th at
he was somehow connected with the ancient
British king, and named his eldest son Arthur. He
also brought many Wel shmen to his court .
Arrhur, Prince of Wales, died early and Henry's
second son became Henry VIII. But he did not
sha re hi s father's love of Wa les. His interest was in
power and authority, through direct control. He
want ed the Welsh to become English.
One example of the changes Hen ry VIII made was
in the matt er of names. At that ti me the We lsh did
not have family names. They used their own fi rst
name with those of the ir fat her and grandfather,
using ap, which meant "son of ". Names were long,
and the English, who had been using family names
for about three hundred years, found them difficult.
From 1535 the English put pressure on the Welsh
to use an English system of names by prevent ing
We lsh names being used in law courts and on
offi cial papers. By 1750 the use of Welsh names had
almost disappeared, altho ugh not before one
Welshman had made a final and humorous protest.
75
An Illustrated Hi story of Britain
He signed his name "Si on ap William ap Sion ap
Willi am ap Sion ap Dafvdd ap Ithel Fychan as
Cynrig ap Robert ap lowerth ap Rhyrid ap lowerth
ap Madoc ap Ednawain Bendew, called after the
English fashion John [ones." Many Wels h people
acce pted wrong English ways of pronouncing their
names. Others took their fathers' first names and ap
Richa rd, ap Robert, ap Hywel , ap Hugh soon
became Pritchard, Probert , Powell and Pugh.
Others who had not used "ap'' were known as
Wi lliams, Thomas, Davies, Hughes and so on .
Between 1536 and 1543 Wa les became join ed to
England under one administration. English law was
now the only law for Wales. Local Wel shmen were
appointed as JPs, so that the \Velsh genr ry became
part of the ruling English establishment. Those
parts of Wales which had not been "shired" were
now organised like English count ies. Wel shmen
entered the English parliament. English beca me the
on ly official language, and Welsh was soon on ly
spoken in the hi lls. Although Wel sh was not
allowed as an official language, Henry VIII gave
permission for a Welsh Bible to be pr inted, which
became the basis on which the We lsh language
survived.
Alth ough most people gave up speaking Wel sh,
poet s and singers cont inued to use it . The spoken
word had remained the most important part of
Wel sh culture since th e Saxon invasion . The
introduction of schoo ls, using English, almost
destroyed thi s last fortress of Welsh culture. The
gathe rings of poets and singers, known as
eisteddfods , which had been going on since 1170
suddenly stopped. But at the end of the eight eent h
century, there were still a few who could speak
Wel sh. Eisteddfods began again, bringing back a
tradit ion which st ill cont inues today.
Ireland
Henry VIII wanted to bring Ireland under his
aut ho rity, as he had don e with Wales. Earli er kings
had allowed the powerful Angle-Irish nobl e families
to rule, but Henry destroyed their power. He
persuaded the Irish parliament to recogni se him as
king of Ireland.
76
However, Henry also tried to make the Irish accept
his English Church Reformati on. But in Ireland,
unlike England , the mon asteries and the Church
were still an important part of eco nomic and soc ial
life. And the Irish nobility and gent ry, unlik e the
English, felt it was too dangerous to take monastic
land. They refused to touch it. When an Anglo-
Irish noble rebelled against Henr y VIII, he did so in
the na me of Cat holicism. Henr y VIII failed to get
what he wanted in Ireland. In fact he made things
worse by bring ing Irish nat iona lism and
Catholicism together against English rule.
It is possible that , without the danger of fore ign
invasion. the Tudors might have give n up trying {Q
control the Irish. But Ireland tempted Catholic
Europe as a place from which to attack the English.
In 1580, during Elizabeth l' s reign, many Irish
rebelled, encouraged by the arrival of a few Spanish
and French soldiers.
Queen Elizabeth' s soldiers saw the rebellious Irish
populat ion as wild and primitive people and treated
them with great crue lty. Edmund Spenser, a famous
Elizabetha n poet, was secretary to the English
commander. Aft er the rebellion was defeated he
wrote, "Out of every corner of the woods ... they
[the Irish rebels] came creeping forth upon t heir
hands, for their legs would not beat them. They
looked like ... death. They spoke like ghosts
crying out of their graves. They did eat th e dead
. . . happy where they could fi nd them."
The Tudors fough t four wars dur ing the period to
make the Irish accept their aut hority and th eir
religion. In the end they destroyed the old Gaelic
way of life and introduced English government .
Ireland became England's first impor tant colony.
The effect of Engl ish rule was greatest in the north,
in Ulster, where the Irish tribes had fought longest.
Here, after the Tudor conquest , lands were taken
and sold to Engl ish and Scott ish merchants. The
nat ive Irish were forced to leave or to work for
these settlers.
The Protestant settlers took most of the good land
in Ulster. Even today most good land in Ulster is
owned by Prot estants, and most poor land by
Catholics. The county of Derry in Ulster was taken
over by a group of London merchants and divided
among rhe twelve main London guilds. The town
of Derry was renamed Londonderry, after its new
merchant owners. This colonisation did not make
England richer, but it destroyed much of Ireland's
society and economy. It also laid the foundat ions
for war between Protestants and Catholics in Ulster
in the second half of th e twentieth century.
Scotland and England
The Scott ish monarchs tried to introduce the same
kind of centralised monarchy tha t the Tudors had
sosuccessfully developed in England. But it was
much harder, because the Scottish econo my was
weaker, and Scortish society more lawless.
However, James IV, [ arnes V, Mary who was
exec uted by her cousin Elizaberh of England, and
her son [ arnes VI made important steps forward.
They tried to control the lawless border country
wit h England, and rhe disobedient Highland clans
in the north. For the Scott ish kings th ere was
always a problem. The most disobedient were often
the best fi ght ers, and no king wanted to make
enemies of those who might help him in batt le
aga inst the English.
Knowing how weak they were, the Scottish kings
usually avoided war with England. They made a
peace treaty wirh Henry VII, the first with an
Engl ish king since 1328, and [ arnes IV married
Henry's daughter Margaret. But Henry VIII still
wanted Scotland to accept his aut hority. In 151 3
his army dest royed th e Sco tt ish army at F1OOden. It
was the worst defeat the Scots ever experienced.
[ames hi mself was kill ed, and wit h him ove r twenty
Scottish nobles,
The battl e of Flodde n increased the disagreement
between those Scott ish nobles who felt that
Scotland shou ld move towards a closer friendship
with England and those who want ed to remain
loya l to the Auld Alliance with France. The
Scottish monarch had to find a balance between
these two, to keep bot h his nobles and his
neighbours happy. The Protestant Reformation in
Europe, and particularly in England, also increased
the uncertainty and danger. The re was talk of a
11 England and herneighbours
Catholic invasion of England by France and Spa in.
Many Sco ts wanted to stay on the side of Catholic
Europe in the hope of sha ring the fruits of a
Carholic invasion of England.
But Henr y VIII remi nded th e Scots th at it was
dangerous to work against him. He sent anothe r
army into Scotland to make the Scott ish James V
accepr his aut hority. [ ames's army was badly de-
feated and [ arnes himself died shor tly after. Henry
hoped to marry his son Edwarc! to the baby Queen
of Scots, Mary, and in this way join the two
countries togethe r under an English king. An
agreement was reached in 1543.
Ordinary Scots were most unhappy at the idea of
being ruled by England. In spite of the ir fear of the
powerful English armies, a new Scottish par liament,
aware of popular feeling, turned down the marriage
agreement. For the next two years English soldiers
punished th em by burning and destroying rhe
houses of sout hern Scotland. Rather than give littl e
Mary to the English, the Scots sent her to France,
where she married the French king's son in 1558.
Mary Queen of Scots and the
Scottish Reformation
Mary was troub led by bad luck and wrong dec isions.
She returned to Scotland as both queen and widow
in 1561. She was Catholic, but during he r time in
France Scotland had become officially and
popularly Protestant.
The Scottish nobles who supported friendship with
England had welcomed Protestanti sm for bot h
political and economic reasons. The new religion
brought Scotland closer to England than France.
Financially, the Scott ish mona rch could take ove r
th e great wealth of the Church in Scotland and this
would almost certa inly mean awards of land to the
nobles, The yearlv income of the Church in
Scotland had been twice that of the monarch .
Unlike the English, however, the Scots were
careful not to give the monarch authority over the
new Protestant Scottish "Kirk", as the Church in
Scotland was called. This was possible because the
Reformation took place whil e rhe queen, Mary, was
77
An Illustrated History of Britain
not in Scotland, and unable to int erfere. The new
Kirk was a far more democratic organisation than
th e English Church, because it had no bishops and
was governed by a Genera l Assembly. The Kirk
taught th e importance of personal belief and the
study of the Bible, and this led quickl y to th e idea
that education was important for eve ryone in
Scotland. As a result most Sco ts remained better
educated than othe r Europeans, incl uding the
English, un til the end of the nineteenth century.
Protestantism had spread qui ckly through the
Scott ish uni versities, which were closely connected
to those in Ge rmany and Scandinavia. The new
Kirk in Scotland disliked Mary and her French
Catholicism. Mary was careful not to give the Kirk
any reason for actua lly opposing her. She made it
clea r she would not try to bring back Ca tholicism.
Mary was soon married again, to Lord Damley, a
'Scottish Catholic'. But when she tired of him, she
allowed herself to agree to his murder and marri ed
the murderer, Bothwel l. Scott ish society, in spite of
its lawlessness, was shocked. The English
govemment did not look forward to the possibility
of Mary succeeding Elizabeth as queen . In addition
to her Cathol icism and her strong Frenc h culture,
she had shown very poor judgement. By her
behaviour Mary probably destroyed her cha nce of
inheri t ing the English throne. She found herself at
war wit h her Sco tt ish oppone nts, and was soon
cap tured and impri soned. However, in 1568 she
escaped to England, where she was held by
Elizabeth for ninet een years before she was finally
exec uted.
A Scottish king for England
Mary's son, [ ames VI, started to rule at the age of
twelve in 1578. He showed great skill from an early
age. He knew that if he behaved correctly he could
expect to inheri t the English throne after
Elizabet h's death, as he was her closest relati ve. He
also knew that a Ca tholic alliance between Spain
and France might lead to an invasion of England so
he knew he had to remain friendlv wit h them too.
He managed to "face both ways", whil e remaining
publicly the Protestant ally of England.
78
Mary Queen of Scots had poor judgement, but she was a beauty. Neither of
these qualities helped her in her relations with her cousin Elizabeth1, and an
act offoolishness finally lost her her head.
[ ames VI is remembered as a weak man and a bad
decision -maker. But thi s was not true whil e he was
king only in Sco tland. Early in his reign, in the last
years of the sixteenth century, he rebuilt t he
authority of the Sco tt ish Crown after the disasters
which had happened to his mother, grandfather
and great-grandfather. He brought the Cat holic
and Protestant nobles and also the Kirk more or less
under royal control. These were the successes of an
extr emel y clever dipl omat. Like the Tudors, he was
a firm believer in th e author ity of the Crown, and
like them he worked with sma ll councils of
mini sters, rather th an Parliament. But he did not
have the money or military power of the Tudors.
[ arnes VI's greatest success was in gaining the
English throne when Elizabet h di ed in 1603 at the
unusually old age of 70. If Elizabeth's advisers had
had serious doubts about [ arnes as a suitable
Prot estant ruler, they would probably have tried to
fi nd another successor to Elizabeth. Few in England
could have liked the idea of a new king coming
from Scotland, their wild northern neighbour. The
fact that England accepted him suggests that its
leading statesmen had confi dence in [ arnes's skills.
12 Government and society
Tudor parliaments ' Rich and poor in town and country ' Domestic
life' Language and culture
During the Tudor period the changes in
government, society and the economy of England
were more far-reaching tha n they had been for
centuri es. But most far-reaching of all were the
changes in ideas, partl y as a result of the rebirth of
inte llect ual att itudes known as th e Renaissance,
which had spread slowly nort hwards from its
beginnings in Ital y. In England the nature of the
Renaissance was also affected by the Prot estant
Reformation and the economic changes that
followed from it.
Tudor parliaments
The Tudor monarchs did not like gove rning
through Parli amenr. Henry VII had used
Parliament only for law making. He seldom called
it together, and the n only when he had a parti cular
job for it. Henry VIII had used it first to mise
money for his milita ry adventures, and then for his
struggle with Rome. His aim was to make sure that
the powerful members from the shires and towns
supported him, because they had a great dea l of
cont rol over popular feel ing. He also wanted to
frighten the priest s and bishops into obeying him,
and to frighten the pope into giving in to his
demands.
Perhaps Hen ry himself did not realise that by
inviting Parli ament to make new laws for the
Reformation he was giving it a level of aut hority it
never had before. Tudor mon archs were certainly
not more democratic than earlier kings, but by
using Parli ament to strengthen their policy, th ey
actually inc reased Parliament's author ity.
Parliamen t strengthened its position again during
Edward VI's reign by ordering the new prayer book
to be used in all churches, and forbidding the
Cat holic mass. When the Ca tholic Queen Marv
came to the throne she succeeded in making
Parl iament cance l all th e new Reformation laws,
and agree to her marriage to Philip of Spain. Bur
she could not persuade Parliament to accept him as
king of England after her death.
Only two things persuaded Tudor mon archs not to
get rid of Parliament altogethe r: they needed mon ey
and they needed the support of the merch ants and
landowners. In 1566 Queen Elizabeth told the
French ambassador that the three parli aments she
had already held were enough for any reign and she
would have no more. Today Parli ament must meet
every year and remain "in session" for three,
quarters of it. This was not at all the case in the
sixteenth ce ntury.
In the early sixteenth century Parl iament on ly met
when the monarc h ordered it . Sometimes it met
twice in one year, but then it might not meet again
for six years. In the first forty-four years of Tudor
rule Parliament mer only twenty times. Henry VIII
assembled Parliament a littl e more often to make
the laws for Church reformation. But Elizabet h,
like he r grandfat her Henry VII, tried not to use
Parliament after her Reformati on Sett lement of
1559, and in forty-four years she only let
Parliament meet thirteen times.
During the century power moved from the House of
Lords to the House of Commons. The reason for
this was simple. The Members of Parli ament (MPs)
in the Commons represent ed richer and more
79
An Illustrated History of Britain
influen ti al classes than the Lords. In fact, the idea
of gett ing rid of the House of Lords, sti ll a real
question in British polit ics today, was first suggested
in the sixteenth century.
The old system of representat ion in the Commons,
with two men from each county and two from each
"borough", or town, remained the rule. However,
during the sixteenth cent ury th e size of the
Commons nea rly doubled, as a resul t of th e
incl usion of We lsh boroughs and counties and the
incl usion of mor e English boroughs.
But Parliament did not reall y represent the peopl e.
Few MPs followed the rul e of livin g in the area they
represented, and the monarchy used its influence to
make sure t hat man y MPs would support royal
policy, rather than the wishes of the ir electors.
In order to control discussion in Parliament, the
Crown appointed a "Speaker". Even today the
Speaker is responsible for good behaviour during
debates in the House of Commons. Hi s job in
Tudor times was to make sure that Parliament
discussed what the monarch wanted Parli ament to
discuss, and th at it made the dec ision whi ch he or
she wanted.
Unti l the end of the T udor period Parli amen t was
supposed to do three things: agree to the taxes
needed; make the laws whi ch th e Crown suggested;
and advise the Crown, but only when asked to do
so. In order for Parl iament to be able to do these
things, MPs were given import ant rights: freedom
of speec h (t ha t is freedo m to speak the ir th ough ts
free ly wit ho ut fear), freedo m from fear of arrest,
and freedom to mee t and speak to the monarch .
T he Tudor monarchs realised t hat by asking
Parliament for money they were giving it power in
the running of the kingdom. All the T udor
monarchs tried to get money in ot her ways. By
1600 Elizabet h had found ways to raise money that
were extremely unwise. She sold "monopo lies",
whic h gave a particular person or company to ta l
control over a trade. In 1601 , th e last parli amen t of
Elizabeth's reign complai ned to her about th e bad
effect on free trade that these monopoli es had.
80
Elizabet h and her adv isers used othe r methods. She
and her chief adv iser, Lord Burghl ey, sold official
posit ions in government. Burghl ey was paid about
£860 a year, but he actu all y made at least £4,000 by
sell ing official positi ons. He kept this secret from
Parl iament. Elizabeth's meth ods of raising money
would tod ay be considered dishon est as well as
fooli sh.
In th eir old age Elizabeth and Burghl ey noti ced less,
and became more careless and slower at making
decisions. They allowed the tax system to become
less 'effect ive , and failed to keep information on
how much money people sho uld be paying. England
needed tax reform, which cou ld only be carried out
with the agreeme nt of Parli ament. Parli ament
wanted to avoi d th e ma tt er of tax, and so did local
gove rnment because the JPs who were responsible
for collec t ing ta xes were also landl ords who would
have to pay them. As JPs were not paid, they saw
no reason for collecti ng unpopular taxes. Elizabeth
left her successors to dea l with the probl em.
Elizabeth avoided ope n discussion on money
matters with Parliament. There was clea rly an
unanswered question about the limits of
Parliamen t's power. Who sho uld dec ide wha t
Parliament could discuss: the Crown or Parliament
itself? Both th e T udor monarchs and th eir MPs
would have agreed th at it was the Crown th at
dec ided. However, dur ing the sixteenth cent ury the
Tudors asked Parliament to discuss, law-make and
advise on almost eve ry subject.
Parliament natu rall y began to think it had a right to
discuss th ese quest ions . By th e end of the sixteent h
century it was beginning to show new confidence,
and in the seve nteenth century, when the gentry
and merchant classes were far more aware of their
own strength, it was obv ious that Parliament would
cha llenge th e Crown. Even tuall y th is resulted in
war.
Rich and poor in town and
country
Even in 1485 much of th e countryside was sti ll
untouched. There were still great forests of oak
trees, and unused land in between. There were st ill
Harduick Hall in Derbyshire,
built in the 1580s, astonished
local people /ry ,hedaring use of
somuch glass. Never had
domestic buildings been so light
""de. The owner, Efi,abelh of
Shrewsbury, was newly wealthy
and anxiOlLS to beremembered
So she Juul theinitials ''E.S. "
placed in the stonework. In
Tudor rimes fumirure became
better. Chairs replaced benches
and stools. feather menresses
r e p ~ l C e d straw mattresses. By
/600 thechests used to store
clothes weretarger , witha
drawer in the bouom. It ucs the
beginning of the chest of drawers.
12 Government and sac icty
wild anima ls, wild pigs. wi ld ca t tle . and even a few
wolves. Sca ttered across this countryside were
"islands" of human set tle ment . villages and towns.
Few towns had more t han 3.000 people. th e size of
a large village today. Most towns, anyway, were no
more th an large villages. with th eir own fields and
farms. Even London, a large city of over 60, 000 by
1500, had fields farmed by its cit izens.
In the sixtee nth century, however, this picture
began to change rapidly. The pop ulat ion increased.
the unused land was cl eared for sheep. and large
areas of forest were cut down to provide wood for
the growing shipbuilding indust ry. England was
beginning to experience greater social and
economic problems than ever before.
The pri ce of food and ot he r goods rose steeply
during the sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries. Th is inflation was without equal until the
twentiet h ce nt ury. T he price of wheat and barl ey.
necessary for bread and beer, increased over five
times betwee n 1510 and 1650. While most ot her
prices increased by five t imes between 1500 and
1600. real wages fell by half. The governme nt tried
to deal with t he probl em of rising costs by making
coins which contained up to 50 per cent less
precious metal. This only reduced t he value of
money, hel ping to push prices up.
People though t that inflati on was caused by silver
and gold pouring into Europe from Spanish
America. But a greate r prob lem was th e sudden
increase in populat ion. In England and Wales the
population almost doubled from 2.2 mi llion in 1525
to four milli on in 1603. Twice t he number of
peo ple needed twice t he amount of food. It was not
produced. Living conditions got worse as the
population rose. It is not surprising that fewer
people married t han ever befor e.
In the co unt ryside th e peop le who di d best in t his
situation were the yeoman farmers who had at least
100 ac res of land. T hey produced food to sell, and
emp loyed men to work on their land. T hey worked
as farmers during the week. bur were "gentlemen"
on Sund ays. They were able to go on increasing
th eir prices because there was no t enough food in
the markets.
Most peop le. however. had only twenty acres of
land or less. They had to pay rent for t he land. and
often found it diffi cult to pay when t he rent
increased. Because of the growing population it was
harder for a man to find work, or to produce
eno ugh food for his family.
Many landowners found t hey could make mor e
money from sheep farming than from growing
crops. They co uld sell t he wool for a good price to
th e rapidl y growing clot h industr y. In order to keep
sheep they fenced off land that had always belonged
to the whol e village. Enclosing land in thi s way was
81
An Illustrated History of Britain
A wedding fe(1jt in the village of
Bermondsey, nowa London
suburb. Merry-making isjust
beginning. and theviewgiwsus
a good idea of village life. The
Tower of London cm be seen
across the river in the
background.
often against the law, but because JPs were
themselves landlords, few peasants could prevent it.
As a result many poor people lost the land they
farmed as well as th e common land where th ey kept
animals, and the tot al amount of land used for
growing food was reduced.
There was a clear con nection between the dama ge
caused by enclos ures and the growth of the cloth
trade As one man watchi ng the problem wrote in
1583, "t hese enclos ures be th e causes why rich men
eat up poor men as beasts do eat grass." All through
the century the gove rnment tried to control
enclosures but without much success. Many people
became unemployed.
There were warning signs that the probl em was
growing. In 1536 large numbers of peopl e from the
north marched to London to show their anger at
the dissoluti on of the monasteries. Their reasons
were only partly rel igious. As life had become
harder, the monasteries had given employment to
many and provided food for the very poor . This
"Pil grimage of Grace", as it was known , was cruelly
82
put down, and its leaders were exec uted. Without
work to do, many peop le stole food in order to eat.
It is thought th at about 7,000 thieves were hanged
during Henry VIII's reign.
Efforts were made by government to keep orde r in a
situat ion of rising unemployment. In 1547
Parliament gave magistrates the power to take any
person who was without work and give him for two
years to any local farmer who wanted to use him.
Any person found homeless and unempl oyed a
second t ime could be exec uted. It did not solve the
crime problem. As one foreign visitor reported,
"There are incredible numbers of robbers here, they
go about in bands of twenty ... "
In 1563 Parliament made JPs responsible for
deciding on fair wages and working hours. A worker
was expect ed to start at fi ve o'clock in th e morning
and work until seven or eight at ni ght with rwo and
a half hours allowed for meals. In order to control
the growing problem of wandering homel ess people,
workers were not allowed to move from the parish
where they had been born without permi ssion. But
Aurealury famil., in the 156Os,
The girls in wcentre are[wins,
but !he family likeness of woWrs
is evident Children wore the same
style of clothing as wir parents.
The dinner tables of W great and
U<a1thy IuuJ become a good deal
more Q'Tderly since [hedays of Sir
Geof{rey LurrreU(see page 57),
Parents ofr.en placed 'heir children
at !he ageof eight or nine in
households of highersocial
standing, This offered the chance of
anadvantageous TlUlm'agelatt"r,
and a rise in statusandwealth.
12 Government and society
already there were probably ove r 10, 000 homele ss
people on the roads.
Good harvests thro ugh most of the century
probably saved England from disaster, but the re
were bad ones bet ween 1594 and 1597, making the
problem of the poor worse again. In 1601
Parliament passed the first Poor Law. This made
local people responsible for the poor in thei r own
area. It gave power to JPs to raise mon ey in the
parish to provide food, housing and work for the
poor and homeless of the same parish .
Many of the poor moved to towns, where there was
a danger they would join togethe r to fight against
and destroy their rulers. The government had good
reason ro be afraid. In 1596, during the period of
bad harvests, peasants in Oxfordshire rioted against
the enclos ures of common land. Apprent ices in
London rioted against th e city aut horit ies. The
Elizabetha n Poor Law was as much a symbol of
author ity as an act of kindness. It remained in
operat ion unr !I 1834.
The pat tern of employment was changing. The
production of finished cloth, the most important of
England's products, reached its greatest importance
during the sixtee nth century. Clot hma kers and
merchants bought raw wool, gave it to spinners,
who were mostly women and children in cottages,
collected it and passed it on to weavers and ot her
clothworkers. Then they sold it .
The successful men of this new capitalist class
showed off their success by building magnificent
houses and churches in the villages where they
worked. England destroyed the Flemish clot h-
making industry, but took advantage of the specia l
ski lls of Flemish craftsmen who came to England.
The lives of rich and poor were very different. The
rich ate good quality bread made from wheat, while
the poor ate rough bread made from rye and barley.
When the re was not enough food the poor made
their bread from beans, peas, or oats. The rich
showed off their wealth in silk, woollen or linen
clothing, while the poor wore simple clothes of
leather or wool.
83
An Illustrated History of Britain
By using coal instead of wood fires, Tudor England
learn t how to make greatly improved steel,
necessary for modern weapons. Henry VIII replaced
the longbow with the musket , an early kind of
hand-held gun. Muskets were not as effective as
longbows, but gunpowder and bullets were cheaper
than arrows, and the men cheaper to train.
Improved stee l was used for making kni ves and
forks, cl ocks, watches, nail s and pins. Birmingham,
by using coa l fires to make steel , grew in the
sixteenth ce ntury from a vill age into an important
industri al city. In both Birmingham and
Manc hester ambitious members of the working and
trading classes could now devel op new industries,
free from th e controls placed on workers by th e
trade guilds in London and in many ot her older
towns.
Coa l was unpopular, but it burnt bette r than wood
and became the most commonly used fuel ,
especially in London , the rapidly growing capital.
In Henr y VIII's reign London had roughl y 60, 000
inh abit ants. By the end of the cent ury this number
had grown to almost 200,000. In 1560 London used
33,000 tons of coa l from Newcas tle, hut by 1600 it
used five times as much, and the smoke darkened
the sky ove r London . A foreign ambassador wrot e
th at the city stan k, and was "the filthi est in the
world".
Domestic life
Foreign visitors were surprised that women in
England had greater freedom than anywhere else in
Europe. Although they had to obey their husbands,
they had self-confi dence and were not kept hidden
in the ir homes as women were in Spain and ot her
co untries. Th ey were allowed free and easy ways
with strangers. As one foreigne r delightedly
not iced, "You are received with a kiss by all, when
you leave you are sent wit h a kiss. You return and
kisses are repeated.II
However, there was a dark side to married life.
Most women bore betwee n eight and fifteen
children, and many women died in childbirt h.
Those who did not saw half their children die at a
84
young age. No one dared ho pe for a long married
life because the dangers to life were too great. For
this reason, and because marriage was often an
eco nomic arrangement, deep emotional ties often
seem to have been absent. When a wife died, a
husband looked for ano ther.
Both rich and poor lived in small family groups.
Brothers and sisters usuall y did not live with each
other or with their parents once they had grown up.
They tried to find a place of their own. Over half
th e population was under twenty-five , while few
were ove r sixty. Queen Elizabeth reac hed the age of
seventy, but thi s was unusual. People expected to
work hard and to di e young. Poor ch ildren started
work at the age of six or seve n.
An Italian visitor to England gives an interesting
view of English society in Tudor times: "The
English are great lovers of themsel ves, and of
everything belonging to them; th ey th ink that there
are no other men than themsel ves, and no other
wor ld but England : and whenever they see a
handsome foreigner, they say tha t ' he looks like an
Englishman' ." The English did not love th eir
children, he tho ught, for "hav ing kept them at
home till they arrive at the age of seve n or nine
years at the most, th ey put them out , boys and
girls, to ha rd service in the houses of ot her people,
hold ing th em to seven or eight years' hard service.
They say they do it in order that their children
might learn better manners. But I believe that they
do it because they are bette r served by strangers
than they would be by their own children."
In spite of the hard condit ions of life, most people
had a larger and better home to live in tha n ever
before. Chimneys, whic h before had only been
found in the homes of the rich , were now built in
every house. This technical deve lopment made
cooking and heating easier and more comfortable.
For the fi rst time more than one room co uld be used
in winter.
Between 1530 and 1600 almost everyone doubled
their living space. After 1570 the wealthy yeoman's
family had eight or more rooms and workers'
families had th ree rooms instea d of one, and more
furniture was used than ever before.
One group of people suffered part icularly badly
during the Tudor period. These were the unmarried
women. Before the Reformati on many of these
women could become nuns, and be assured that in
the religious life they would be safe and respected.
After the dissolution of the monasteries, thousands
became beggars on the roads of England. In fut ure
an unmarried woman could only hope to be a
servant in someo ne else's house, or to be kept by
her own family. She had littl e choice in life.
Language and culture
At the beginning of th e Tudor period English was
still spoken in a number of different ways. There
were st ill reminders of the Saxon, Angle, Jute and
Viking invas ions in the different forms of language
spoken in different part s of the country. Since the
time of Cha ncer. in the mid-fourteenth cent ury,
London English, itself a mixture of south Midland
and sout heastern English, had become accepted as
standard English. Printi ng made this standard
English more widely accepted amongst th e literate
populat ion. For th e first time, people started to
think of London pron unciat ion as "correct "
pronunciat ion. One educator in Henry VIII's time
spoke of the need to teach children to speak
English "which is clean , polite, [and] perfectly . ..
pronou nced." Unt il Tudor t imes the local forms of
speech had been spoken by lord and peasant alike.
From Tudor t imes onwards the way people spoke
began to show the difference between the m.
Educated people began to speak "correct" English,
and uneducat ed people cont inued to speak the local
dialect .
Li teracy increased greatly during the rnid-slxrcen rh
century, even though the reli gious houses, which
had always provided trad itional educat ion, had
closed. In fact , by the seve nt eenth century about
half th e popul at ion could read and write.
Nothi ng, however, showed England's new
confidence more than its artistic flowering during
the Renaissance. England felt the effects of the
Renaissance later than much of Europe because it
was an island. In the early years of the sixteent h
centu ry English thinkers had become interested in
12 Gove rnment and society
the work of the Dutch phil osopher Erasmus, One of
them, Thomas More, wrote a study of the ideal
nati on , called Utopia, whi ch became extremely
popular throughout Europe .
The Renaissance also infl uenced religion,
encouraging the Prot estant Reformat ion, as well as
a freer approac h to ways of thinking within the
Catholic Church. In music England enj oyed its
most fruitful period ever. There was also
considerable interest in the new painters in Europe,
and England developed its own special kind of
painting, the miniature portrait.
literature, however, was England's greatest art
form. Playwrights like Chrisrophe r Marlowe, Ben
[ onson , and Will iam Sha kespeare filled the theatre s
with their exciti ng new plays.
Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon- Avon. and
went to the local grammar school. His education
was typical of the Tudor age, because at th is ti me
the "grammar" schools, whic h tried to teach
"correct" English, became the commonest form of
educati on. His plays were popular with both
educated and uneducated people. Many of his plays
were about English history, but he changed fact to
suit public opinion.
Nothing shows the adventurous spirit of the age
better than the "soldier poet s". These were true
Renaissance men who were both brave and cruel in
war, but also highl y educated. Sir Edmund Spenser,
who fought with the army in Ireland, was one. Sir
Philip Sidney, killed fighting th e Spanish in the
Netherlands, was ano ther. A third was Sir Waiter
Raleigh, adve nt urer and poet. While impr isoned in
the Tower of London waiting to be executed,
he wrote a poem whi ch describes how t ime takes
away youth and gives back only old age and dust . It
was found in his Bible after his execution:
Even such is ti me, that takes in trust
Our yout h, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us bur with eart h and dust .
Who , in the dark and silent grave,
Whe n we have wandered all our ways.
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from th is eart h, thi s grave, thi s dust ,
My God sha ll raise me up, I trust.
85
86
The Stuarts
13 Crown and Parliament
Parliament against the Crown . Religious disagreement . Civil war
The Sruarr monarchs, from James I onwards, were
less successful than the Tudors. They quarrelled
with Parliament and thi s resulted in civil war. The
only king of England ever to be tried and executed
was a Sruarr, The republic that followed was even
more unsuccessful, and by popular demand the dead
king's son was called back to the throne. Another
Stuarr king was driven from his throne by his own
daughter and her Dutch husband, William of
Orange. Wi lliam became king by Parliament 's
election, not by right of birt h. Whe n the last
Stuart , Queen Anne, died in 1714, the mon archy
was no longer absolutely powerful as it had been
when [ arnes VI rode south from Scotland in 1603.
It had become a "parliamentary monarchy"
controlled by a constitution.
These important changes did not take place simply
because the Sruarts were bad rulers. They resulted
from a basic change in societ y. During the
seventeenth century economic power moved even
faster int o the hands of the merchant and
landowning farmer classes. The Crown could no
longer raise money or govern without their eo-
operation. These groups were represented by the
House of Commons. In ret urn for money th e
Commons deman ded polit ical power. The victory
of the Commons and the classes it represented was
unavoidable.
Charles I on horseback, pcinred in 1633 lry the great COUT! painter Anlhony
VanDyck. This pictureannouncesthe triumph 0/ kingship. At the time
Charles was at the heighl of his poo.'ef. He had noneed of Parliament andif
seemed [hat the king could rule alone, as the king of France u.w doing.
Charlesuus farally wrong. Ir was Parliament char triumphed during the
set't'l'lreenmcentury. By rhe end of the century rhe pceers of !he sotJeTeign
uere umired by !he UJiU of PllTUamenL. In the bottom lefl corner are the
Sruan arms. combiningfor the finl time theEnglish"quarteTS"
uirh the ScunishUan Rampanl andthe IrishHarp.
It would be interesting to know how the Tudors
would have deal t with the growing power of the
House of Commons. They had been lucky not to
have thi s problem. But they had also been more
l ames I U '(IS a disappoimmenr to the Engltih. As l ames VI inScotland he
had cered skilfully to suroive the plots of his nobks. In England he was beuer
known farhis Luk of skiUin dealingU1Ut Parliament and wiUt his ministers.
87
An Illustrated History of Britain
willing to give up their beliefs in order that their
polici es would succeed. The Stuarts, on the other
hand, held onto their beliefs however much it cost
them, even when it was foolish to do so.
The political developments of the per iod also
resulted from basic changes in thinking in the
seventeenth century. By 1700 a ruler like Henry
VIII or Elizabeth 1 would have been quite
unthinkable. By the time Queen Anne died, a new
age of reason and science had arrived,
Parliament against the Crown
The first signs of trouble between Crown and
Parli ament came in 1601, when the Commons were
angry over Elizabeth's policy of selling monopoli es.
But Parli ament did not demand any changes. It did
not wish toupset th e ageing queen whom it feared
and respecred,
Like Elizabeth, [ arnes 1 tried to rule without
Parli ament as much as possible. He was afraid it
would interfere, and he preferred to rule with a
small counc il.
[ames was clever and well educated. As a child in
Scotland he had been kidnapped by groups of
nobl es, and had been forced to give in to the Kirk.
Because of these experiences he had developed
strong beliefs and opinions. The most important of
these was his belief in the divine right of kings. He
believed that the king was chosen by God and
therefore only God could judge him. [ ames's ideas
were not different from those of earli er monarchs,
or other mon archs in Europe.
He expressed these opinions openly, however, and
thi s led to trouble with Parliament. [arnes had an
unfortunate ha bit of saying something true or cle ver
at the wrong moment. The French king described
[ ames as "the wisest fool in Christendom". It was
unkind, but true. [arnes, for all his clevern ess,
seemed to have lost the commonsense whi ch had
helped him in Scotland.
When Elizabeth died she left James with a huge
debt, larger than the total yearly income of the
Crown. [ arues had to ask Parliamenr to raise a tax
88
to pay the debt. Parliament agreed, but in return
insisted on the right to discuss [ ames's home and
foreign policy. [arnes, however , insisted th at he
alone had the "divine tight" to make these
decisions. Parliament disagreed, and it was
supported by the law.
Jame s had made rhe mistake of appointing
Elizabeth 's mini ster , Sir Edward Coke, as Ch ief
Justice. Coke made decisions based on the law
whi ch limited the king's power. He judged that the
king was not above the lawI and even more
important , that the king and his council could not
make new laws. Laws could only be made by Act of
Parliament. [ ames removed Coke from the position
of Chief Justice, but as an MP Coke cont inued to
make troubl e. He reminded Parli ament of Magna
Cart a, interpreting it as the great cha rter of English
freedom. Although this was not reall y true, his
claim was poli ticall y useful to Parliament. This was
the first quarrel between [ ames and Parli ament, and
it started the bad feeling whi ch lasted dur ing his
ent ire reign, and that of his son Charles.
[ arnes was successful in ruling with out Parliament
between 1611 and 1621, but it was only possible
because Britain remained at peace. [ ames could not
afford the cost of an army. In 1618, at th e
beginning of the Thirty Years War in Europe,
Parliament wished to go to war agains t the
Catholics. [ arnes would not agree. Unt il hi s death
in 1625 [ arues was always quarrelling with
Parliament over money and over its desire to play a
part in hi s foreign policy.
Charles I found himself quarrelling even more
bitterl y with the Commons th an his fathe r had
done, mainl y over money. Finall y he said,
"Parli aments are al together in my power .. . As I
find th e fruits of them good or evil, they are to
cont inue or not to be." Cha rles dissolved
Parliament.
Charles's need for money, however, forced him to
recall Parliament , but each time he did so, he
quarrelled with it . When he tried raising money
with out Parl iament, by borrowing from merchants,
bank ers and landowning gentry, Parliamen t decided
to make Cha rles agree to certa in "par liamentary
right s". It hoped Charles could not raise enough
money without its help, and in 1628 this happened .
In return for the money he badly needed, Charles
promised that he would only raise money by Act of
Parliament , and that he would not imprison anyone
without lawful reason.
These rights, known as the Pet it ion of Right,
established an important rule of government by
Parliament , because the ki ng had now agreed that
Parliament controlled both state money, the
"national budget" , and the law. Cha rles realised
that the Pet ition made nonsense of a king's "divine
right ". He decided to prevent it being used by
dissolving Parliament the following year.
Charles surprised everyone by being able to rule
successfully witho ut Parliament. He got rid of much
dishonesty that had begun in the Tudor period and
continued during his fathe r's reign. He was able to
balance his budgets and make administrat ion
effic ient. Cha rles saw no reason to explain his
policy or method of government to anyone. By
1637 he was at the height of his power. His
author ity seemed to be more completely accepted
than the author ity of an English king had been for
centuries. It also seemed that Parl iament might
never meet again.
Religious disagreement
In 1637, however, Cha rles began to make serious
mistakes. These resulted from the religious situa t ion
in Britain. His fat her, [ ames, had been pleased tha t
the Anglican Church had bishops. The y willingly
supported hi m as head of the English Church. And
he disliked the Presbyteri an Kirk in Sco tland
because it had no bishops. It was a more democratic
institut ion and this gave politica l as well as rel igious
power to the literate classes in Sco tland. They had
given him a difficult time before he became king of
England in 1603.
There were also people in England, known as
Puritans, who, like the Sco tt ish Presbyteri ans,
wanted a democrat ic Church. Queen Elizabet h had
been careful to prevent them from gaining power in
the Anglican Church. She even executed a few of
them for print ing books against the bishops. In
13 Crown and Parliament
1604, Purit ans met [ames to ask him to remove the
Anglican bishops to make the English Church
more like the Kirk, but he saw only danger for the
Crown. "A Scott ish Presbvtery agrees as well with
monarchy as God with the Devil," he remar ked,
and sent them away wit h the words, "No bishop,
no king."
Charles shared his fathe r's dislike of Pur itans. He
had married a French Catholic, and the marriage
was unpopul ar in Prot estant Britai n. Many MPs
were either Puritans or sympat hised with them, and
many of the wealth-creat ing classes were Puritan.
But Charles took no notice of popular feeling, and
he appo inted an enemy of the Puritans, William
Laud, as Archbishop of Ca nterbury.
Archbishop Laud brought back into the Anglican
Church many Ca tholic pract ices. They were
extremely unpopular. Anti-Catholic feeling had
been increased by an event over thirty years earlier,
in 1605. A small group of Catholics had been
caught trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament
with King [ arnes inside. One of these men, Guy
Fawkes, was captured in the cellar under the
House. The escape of king and Parli ament caught
people' s imagination, and 5 November, the
anniversary. became an occasion for ce lebration
with fireworks and bonfires.
Archbishop Laud tr ied to make the Scott ish Kirk
accept the same organisat ion as the Church in
England. [ arnes I would have realised how
dangerous this was, but his son, Cha rles, did not
because he had only lived in Sco tland as an infant .
Whe n Laud tried to introduce the new prayer book
in Sco tland in 1637 the result was national
resistance to the introduction of bishops and what
Scots thought of as Catholicism.
In spring 1638 Cha rles faced a rebel Scottish army.
Without the help of Parliament he was only able to
put togethe r an inexpe rienced army. It marched
north and found that th e Scots had crossed the
border. Cha rles knew his ar my was unlikely to win
against the Scots. So he agreed to respect all
Scottis h polit ical and religious freedoms, and also
to pay a large sum of money to persuade the Scots
to return home.
89
An Illustrated History of Britain
It was impossible for Cha rles to find th is money
except through Parli ament. This gave it the chance
to end eleven years of absolute rule by Cha rles, and
to force him to rule under par liamentary control. In
return for its help, Parliament made Charles accept
a new law whic h stated that Parli ament had to
meet at least once eve ry three years. However. as
the months went by, ir became increasingly clear
that Charles was not willing ro keep his agreements
with Parli ament. Ruling by "d ivine right", Charles
felt no need to accept its decisions.
Civil war
Events in Scotland made Charles depend on
Parli ament, but events in Ireland result ed in civil
war. [ ames I had cont inued Elizabeth's policy and
had colonised Ulster, the northern part of Ireland,
D ec ruroll ed by
Parliament
D controlled by
the king
,==,==' 00 km ~
Theareas COf1tTOUed by Parliament and!he king halfwa'J lhTOugh !he Civil
Wa,. /642-1 645.
90
mainl y with farmers from the Scortish Lowlands.
The Cat holic Irish were sent off the land, and even
those who had worked for Prot estant set tlers were
now replaced by Protestant workers from Scotland
and England .
In 1641, at a moment when Cha rles badly needed a
period of quiet , Ireland exploded in rebell ion
against the Protestant English and Scottish set tlers.
As many as 3,000 people, men, women and child-
ren , were killed, most of them in Ulster. ln
London, Charles and Parli ament quarrelled over
who shou ld control an army to defeat the rebels.
Many bel ieved that Charles only wanted to raise an
army in order to dissolve Parliament by force and to
rule alone again. Cha rles's friendship towards the
Catholic Church increased Protestant fears.
Already some of the Irish rebels claimed to be
rebelling against the English Protestant Parliament,
Parliamenf met at: Wes!miruLeT in 1640, derermfned ro limit Charles 1'5
freedom andtc ensure that Parliament would meet regularly infuture.
Because of rebeUiems in Sccdcnd andin Ireland, Charles had regil.'t' into
Parliament 's wish to oversee gOtltTTlment .
•
13 Crown and Parliament
IJ" ,.--11),.6, R....
. r
l atuun' j.·r• •·. lr'· ........ dr.... n "p.
. r"./NI"",,n I,.,j;
BATTI,f:
1011 )::1.1 lb,· Jun.. IGU.
The banleof NaselJy in 1645 marked the final defeal of Charles I by Parliament. Charles can beseen infrontof his anny. General
Fairfaxcommanded the Parliamentarians. and his second-in-commend, OliverCromweU, commanded the right wing of the anny.
but not against the king. In 1642 Charles ttied to
arrest five MPs in Parliament. Although he was
unsuccessful, it convinced Parliament and its
supporters all over England that they had good
reason to fear.
London locked its gates against the king, and
Charles moved to Nott ingham, where he gat hered
an army to defear rhose MPs who opposed him.
The Civil War had srarted. Most people, borh in
the country and in the towns, did not wish to be on
one side or the orher. In fact, no more than 10 per
cent of the populati on became involved. But most
of the House of Lords and a few from the Commons
supported Charles. The Royalists, known as
"Cavaliers", controlled most of the north and west.
But Parliament controlled East Anglia and the
southeast , including London. Its army at first
consisted of armed groups of London apprentices.
Their short hair gave the Parliamentarian soldiers
their popul ar name of "Roundheads".
Unless the Royalists could win quickl y it was
certain that Parliament would win in the end.
Parliament was supported by the navy , by most of
the merchants and by the population of London. It
therefore controlled the most important national
and international sources of wealth. The Royalists,
on the ot her hand, had no way of raising money.
By 1645 the Royalist army was unpaid, and as a
result soldiers either ran away, or stole from local
villages and farms. In the end they lost their
courage for the fight against the Parli amentarians,
and at Naseby in 1645 the Royalist army was finally
defeated.
Most people were happy that the war had ended .
Trade had been interrupted, and Parliament had
introduced new taxes to pay for the war. In many
places people had told bot h armies to stay away
from their areas. They had had enough of
uncontrolled soldiers and of paying the cost of the
war.
91
14 Republican and Restoration Britain
Republican Britain . Catholicism, the Crown and the new
constitutional monarchy . Scotland and Ireland . Foreign relations
Republican Britain
Severa l MPs had commanded the Parliamentarian
army. Of these , the strongest was an East An glian
gentleman farmer named Oliver Cromwell. He had
creat ed a new "model " army, the first regular force
from which the British army of today developed .
Instead of country people or gentry, Cromwell
invit ed into his ariny educated men who wanted to
fight for their beliefs.
Cromwell and his advisers had captured the king in
1645, but they did not know what to do wit h him.
This was an entirely new situat ion in English
history. Charles himself cont inued to encourage
rebell ion against Parl iament even after he had
surrendered and had been imprisoned. He was able
to encourage the Sco ts to rebel against the
Parli amentarian army. After the Scot s were
defeated some Puri tan officers of the
Parliamentarian army demanded the king's death
for treason.
The Parliamentarian leaders now had a problem.
They could either bring Charles back to the throne
and allow him to rule, or remove him and create a
new political system. By this time most peop le in
bot h Houses of Parliament and probably in the
country wanted the king back . They feared the
Parl iamentarians and they feared the dangerous
behavi our of the army. But some army commanders
were determined to get rid of the king. These men
were Puritans who believed they could build God's
kingdom in England .
Two-thirds of the MPs did not want to put the king
on trial. They were removed from Parl iament by
92
It is said th£u O/it/er Cromwell. «!ith Puritan humi/i()', told his /Xlinter,
Samuel Cooper, 10 include the warts Oil hisface. BtH as well as humilit)'
Cromwell also had a soldiL>r's belief in aUlhorify. As a resulr he was
Impo{lItlar us Lord Protector. He failed 10pcrsw:u1e the Englishthat
republican .l:0vemmenrwas better flummonarchy, mainly because peoplehad
less freedom under hi!> authoritarian rulethan they Md under Charles 1.
the army, and the remaining fifty-three judged him
and found him guilty of making "war against his
kingdom and the Parliamen t". On 31 Janu ary 1649
King Charles was execut ed. It was a cold day and
he wore two shirts so that the crowd who came to
watch would not see him shiver and think him
fright ened.
King Cha rles died bravely. As his head was cut
from his body the large crowd groaned. Perhaps the
execution was Charles's own greatest victory,
because most people now realised that they did not
want Parliamentary rule, and were sorry that
Charles was not st ill king.
From 1649- 1660 Britain was a republi c, but the
republic was not a success. Cromwell and his
fr iends created a government far more severe than
Charles's had been. They had got rid of the
monarchy, and they now got rid of th e House of
Lords and the Anglican Church.
The Scots were shocked by Cha rles's execution.
They invited his son, whom they recognised as
King Charles 11 , to join th em and fi ght against
the English Parliamentary army. But they were
defeated, and young Cha rles himself was lucky to
escape to France. Sco rland was brought under
English republ ican rule.
Cromwell took an army to Ireland to puni sh the
Irish for the kill ing of Protestants in 1641, and for
the cont inued Royalist rebellion there. He captu red
two towns, Drogheda and Wexford. His soldiers
killed the inhabitants of both, about 6,000 people
in all. These killi ngs were probably no worse than
the killings of Protestants in 1641, but they
remained powerful symbols of English cruelty to th e
Irish.
The army remained th e most powerful force in th e
land. Disagreements bet ween the army and
Parliament result ed in Parliament's dissolution in
1653. It was the behaviour of the army and the
dissolut ion of Parl iament that destroyed Cromwell's
hopes. Many in the army held what were thought
to be stra nge beli efs. A group called "Levellers"
wanted a new equality among all men . They
want ed Parli ament to meet every two years, and for
most men over the age of twenty-one to have the
right to elect MPs to it. They also wanted complet e
rel igious freedom, which would have allowed the
many new Puritan groups to follow their religion in
the way they wished.
14 Republican and Restoration Britain
Two hundred years later, such demands were
thought of as basic citizens' rights. But in the
middle of the seventeenth century they had little
popular support. Levellers in the army rebelled, but
their rebelli on was defeat ed.
From 1653 Britain was governed by Cromwell
alone. He became "Lord Prot ector", with far
grearer powers than King Charles had had. His
efforts to govern the country through the army were
extremely unpopular, and the idea of using the
army to maintain law and order in the kingdom has
remained unpopul ar ever since. Cromwell's
government was unpopular for other reasons. For
example, people were forbidden to celebrate
Christmas and Easter, or to play games on a
Sunday.
When Cromwell died in 1658, the Protector at e, as
his republ ican administration was called, collapsed.
Cromwell had hoped that his son, rather than
Parliament , would take over when he died. But
Richard Cromwell was not a good leader and the
army commande rs soon started to quarrel among
the mselves . One of these decided to act. In 1660
he marched to London, arranged for free electi ons
and invit ed Charles 11 to return to his kingdom.
The republi c was over.
When Cha rles 11 returned to England as the
publicl y accepted king, th e laws and Acts of
Cromwell's gove rnment were auto mat ically
cance lled.
Cha rles managed his return with skill. Altho ugh
Parli ament was once more as weak as it had been in
the time of [ ames I and Charles I, the new king was
careful to make peace with his father' s enemies.
Only those who had been responsible for his
fath er's exec ution were punished. Many
Parliamentarians were given positions of authority
or responsibility in the new mon archy. But
Parli ament itself remained gene rally weak. Charles
sha red hi s fat her's bel ief in divine right. And he
greatl y admired th e magnificent , all-powerful,
absolute ruler of France, Louis XIV.
93
An Illustrated History of Britain
Charles Il, who' 'never said a foolish thing, noreverdida wiseone, " was a
welcome change from CromweUian rule. Charles Il believed as strongly as
hisfather andgrandfather in the divine right of kings, but Iuu:I. the good sense
to atlOid an openbreak with Parliament. His reign wascarefree andrelaxed,
as this portrait suggests. quite different from the mood suggested in Van
Dyck's portrait of his father (page 86).
Catholicism, the Crown and the
new constitutional monarchy
Cha rles hoped to make peace between th e different
religious groups. He wanted to allow Puritans and
Catho lics who disliked the Anglican Church to
94
meet freely. But Parli ament was strongly Anglican,
and would not allow this. Before the Civil Wa r,
Puritans looked to Parli ament for prorection against
. the king. Now th ey hoped that the king would
protect them against Parl iament.
Cha rles hi mself was attracted to the Cat holic
Church. Parliament knew thi s and was always
afraid that Charles would become a Catholic. For
th is reason Parliament passed the Test Act in 1673,
which prevented any Catholic from holding public
office. Fear of Charles's inte rest in th e Cat holic
Church and of the monarchy becoming too
powerful also resulted in the fi rst polit ical part ies in
Britain.
One of these part ies was a group of MPs who
became known as "Whigs", a rude name for cattle
drivers. The Whigs were afraid of an absolute
monarchy, and of the Catho lic faith with which
th ey connec ted it . They also wanted to have no
regular or "standing" army. In spite of th eir fear of a
Catholic king, th e Whigs believed strongly in
allowing religious freedom. Because Charles and his
wife had no children, the Whigs feared that the
Crown would go to Cha rles's Catho lic brothe r,
[ arnes. They wanted to prevent this, but they were
undecided ove r who they did want as king.
The Whigs were opposed by anothe r group,
nicknamed "Tories", an Irish name for thi eves. It is
difficult to give a simple definition of eac h party,
because they were loosely formed groups. Generally
speaking, however, the Tories upheld the aut hori ty
of the Crown and the Churc h, and were na tural
inheri tors of the "Roya list" position. The Whigs
were not against the Crown, but they believed that
its authority deperided upon the consent of
Parli ament. As na tura l inheritors of the
"Parliamentarian" values of twenty years earlier,
they fel t tolerant towards the new Protestant sects
which the Anglican Church so disliked. These two
part ies, the Whigs and the Tories, became the basis
of Britain's two-part y parliamentary system of
gove rnment.
The struggle over Catho licism and the Crown
became a crisis whe n news was heard of a Catholic
plot to murder Charles and put his brothe r [ames
on the th rone. In fact the plan did not exist. The
story had been spread as a clever trick to frighten
people and to make sure that [ arnes and rhe
Cat holics did not come to power. The trick
worked. Parli ament passed an Acr forbidding any
Cat holic to be a member of either the Commons or
the Lords. It was not successful, however , in
preventing lames from inheriting the crown.
Cha rles would not allow any interference with his
brother's div ine right to be king. Swam might give
in on matters of policyI but never on matters of
principle.
[arnes 1I became king after his brother's death in
1685. The Tori es and Anglicans were delighted,
but not for long. l ames had already shown his
dislike of Protestants whil e he had been Charles's
governor in Scotla nd. His soldiers had killed man y
Presbyteri an men, women and children. This
period is st ill remembered in some parts of Scotland
as the "killing t imes".
James then tried to remove the laws whic h stopped
Catholics from taking positions in government and
Parliament. He also tr ied to bring back the
Catholic Church , and allow it to exist beside the
Anglican Church. [ arnes almost certainly believed
sincerel y that this would result in many returning to
the Catholic Church. But Parliament was very
angry, particularl y the Tories and Anglicans who
had supported him against the Whigs.
[arnes tried to get rid of the Tory gentry who most
strongly oppose d him. He removed three-quart ers of
all jPs and replaced the m with men of lower social
class. He tried to bring together the Catholics and
the Puritans, now usuall y called "Nonconformists"
because they would not agree with or "conform" to
the Anglican Church.
In spite of thei r anger, Tories, Whi gs and
Anglicans did nothing because they could look
forward to the succession of [ arnes' s daughter,
Mary. Marv was Protestant and married to the
Protestant ruler of Holl and, William of Orange.
But thi s hope was destroyed with the news in June
1688 th at l ames's son had been born. The Tories
and Anglicans now joined the Whigs in looking for
a Protestant rescue.
14 Republi can and Restoration Britain
They invit ed William of Orange to invade Brita in.
It was a dangerous thing for Willi am to do, but he
was already at war with France and he needed the
help of Britain' s wealth and armed forces. At this
important moment [ arnes's determinati on failed
him. It seems he act ually had some kind of mental
breakdown.
Willi am entered London, but the crown was offered
only to Mary. William said he would leave Britain
unl ess he also became king. Parli ament had no
choice bur to offer the crown to bot h William and
Marv,
However, while Will iam had obtained the crown,
Parli ament had also won an important point. After
he had fl ed from England , Parli ament had decided
that [ arues 1I had lost his right to th e crown. It
gave as its reason that he had tried to undermine
"the const itution of the kingdom by breaking the
original contract between King and People. " Th is
idea of a contract between ruler and ruled was not
enti rely new. Since the restoration of Charles 1I in
1660 there had been a number of theor ies about the
nature of government. In the 1680s two of the
more important theorists, Algernon Sidney and
John Locke , had argued that government was based
upon the consent of the peopl e, and that the
powers of the king must be strictly limi ted. The
logical conclusion of such ideas was th at the
"consent of the people" was represented by
Parliament, and as a result Parliamen t, not the
king, should be the ove rall power in the state. In
1688 these theories were fulfi lled.
Like th e Civil War of 1642, th e Glorious
Revolution, as the political results of the events of
1688 were called, was completely unpl anned and
unprepared for . It was hardl y a revol uti on , more a
coup cl 'ewt by the ruling class. But the fact that
Parli ament made William king, not by inheritance
but by their choice, was revolution ary. Parli ament
was now beyond question more powerful than the
king, and would remain so. Its power over the
monarch was written into the Bill of Rights in
1689. The king was now unable to raise taxes or
keep an army without the agreement of Parli ament,
or to act against any MP for what he said or did in
Parliament.
An Illustrated History of Britain
In 1701 Parli ament finally passed rhe Acr of
Settlement, to make sure only a Prot estant could
inherit the crown. It stated tha t if Mary had no
children th e crown would pass to her sister Anne. If
she also died without children, it would go to a
granddaughter of l ames I, who had married th e
Ge rman elector of Hanover, and her children. The
Act of Settlement was important, and has remained
in force ever since, altho ugh the Stuarts tried three
t imes to regain the crown. Even today, if a son or
daughter of the monarch becomes a Catholic, he or
she cannot inherit the throne.
Scotland and Ireland
Ne ithe r Sco tland,nor Ireland accepted the English
removal of lames peacefully. In Sco tland supporters
of the St uarrs rebelled, but although they
successfully defeated a government army, their
rebellion ended after the death of their leader. Most
of the rebels were Highlanders, many of them still
Catholic.
Scotland was still a separate kingdom, although it
shared a king with England (James 11 had been
l ames VII of Scotland). The English wanted
Scotland and England to be united. But the English
Ac t of Settleme nt was not law in Scotland. While
Scotland remained legally free to choose its own
king there was a danger that this might be used to
put a St uarr back on the throne. Scotland might
renew its Auld Alliance with France, whi ch was
now England's most dangerous European ene my.
Onthe othe r hand , Sco tland needed to remove the
limits on trade with England from whi ch it suffered
econo mically. The English Parli ament offered to
remove th ese limits if the Scots agreed to union
with England. The Scots knew th at if they did not
agree there was a real danger tha t an English army
would once again march int o Scotland. In 1707 the
union of Scotland and England was completed by
Ac t of Parliament. From that moment both
countries no longer had separate parliaments, and a
new parliament of Great Britain, the new name of
the state, met for the first time. Sco tland, however,
kept its own separate legal and judi cial system, and
its own separate Church.
96
"No surrender", themotto ofthe
Londonderry Protestants under
siege in 1690 by the Catholic
Irish, has remained the mono of
the Ulster Protestants to this day.
This Protestant hmne displays the
crossed flags of the Unionof
Great Britain andNorthern
Irelandandof Ulster.
In Ireland the Catholicism of [ ames H had raised
the hopes of those who had lost their lands to the
Protestant set tlers. When he lost his throne in
England , James naturall y thought that Ireland
would make a strong base from which to take back
his throne. In 1689 he landed in Ireland, with
French support .
In Dublin a Catholic parliament immedi atel y
passed an Act taking away all the property of
Protestants in Ireland. But it was not so easy to
carry thi s out . Thi rt y thousand Protestants locked
themselves in the city of Londonderry (or "Derrv"
as the Cat holics cont inued to call it) . [arnes
encircled the city but the defenders refused to
surrender. After fifteen weeks, English ships arrived
bringing fresh supplies and the struggle for
Londonderry was over. The bat tlecry of the
Protestants of Londonderry "No Surrender!" has
remained to this day the cry of Ulster
Protestanti sm.
Ki ng Wi lliam landed in Ireland in 1690, and
defeated [ arnes's army at the River Boyne. [ arnes
left Ireland for France a few days later, and never
returned to any of his kingdoms . With th e bat tle of
the Boyne the Protestant victory was complete .
Foreign relations
During the seventeenth century Britain' s main
enemies were Spain, Holland and France. War with
Holland resulted from competit ion in trade. Aft er
three wars in the middle of the century, when
Britain had achieved the trade posit ion it wanted,
peace was agreed, and Holl and and Britain co-
operated against France.
At the end of the century Britain went to war
against France. This was partly because Willi am of
Orange brought Britain into the Dut ch struggle
with the French . Bur Britain also wanted to limit
French power , which had been growing under Louis
XIV. Under the duke of Marlborough, the Briti sh
army won several important victories over the
French at Blenheim (on the Danube), Ramillies,
Oudenarde and Malplaquet (in the Netherlands) .
14 Republican and Restoration Britain
By the treat y of Utrecht in 1713 France accepted
limits on its expansion, as well as a political
settlement for Europe. It accepted Queen Anne
instead of [ ames Il' s son as th e true monarch of
Britain . In the war Britain had also won the rock of
Gibraltar, and could now control the entrance to
the Medit erranean .
The capture of foreign land was important for
Europe's econo mic development. At thi s stage
Btit ain had a smaller empire abroad than eithe r
Spain or Holland. But it had greater variety. On
the east coast of America, Britain cont rolled about
twelve colonies. Of far greater int erest were the
new possessions in the West Indies, where sugar
was grown . Sugar became a craze from which
Britain has not yet recovered.
The growing sugar economy of the We st Indies
increased the demand for slaves. By 1645, for
example, the re were 40,000 white settlers and
6,000 negro slaves in Barbados. By 1685 the
balance had cha nged , wit h only 20,000 white
settlers but 46,000 slaves. The sugar importers used
their great influence to make sure that the
government did not stop slavery.
During this t ime Britain also established its first
trading settlements in India, on both the west and
east coasts. The East India Company did not
interfere in Indian politics. Its interest was only in
trade. A hundred years later, however, compet ition
with France result ed in direct efforts to control
Indian polit ics, either by alliance or by the
conquest of Indian princely states.
97
15 Life and thought
The revolution in thought · Life and work in the Stuart age· Family
life
The politica l revolut ion during the St uart age could
not have happened if the re had not been a
revolut ion in thought. This influenced not only
polit ics, but also religion and science. By 1714
people's ideas and beliefs had changed enormously.
The real Protestant revolution did no t, in fact,
happen until the seventeenth century, when several
new religious groups appeared. But there were also
exciting new scientific ideas, qui te separate from
these new beliefs. For the first time it was
reasonable to argue that everything in the uni verse
had a natural explana t ion, and thi s led to a new
self-confidence.
Another reason for this self-confidence was the
change in Britain 's int ernat ional position during
the century. In 1603, in spite of the Armada
victory of 1588 and in spite of the union of England
and Sco tland under one sovereign, Britain was still
considered less important than France, Spain and
the Holy Roman Empire. But by 1714 the success
of its armies against France had made Britain a
leading European power. At the same time Britain
had so many new colonies that it was now in
competit ion with earlier colonial nations, Spain,
Portugal and the Ne therlands.
The revolution in thought
The influence of Puritani sm increased greatl y
during the seventeenth century, particul arly among
the merchant class and lesser gentry. It was the
Puritans who persuaded James I to permit a new
official ("authorised") translation of the Bible. It
was published in 1611. This beautiful transl ation
98
A Quaker meetingaddressed bya WOl1UIn. Qunkers had. a numberof striking
ideas, farexample, ,ha, all men andwomen were equal. The Quaker
movement began during the Civil War, andin 1661 iradopted rhe "peace
principle", the ideathat all war was wrong. SincethenQuakers have been
pacifist.
was a great work of English literature, and it
encouraged Bible reading among all those who
could read. Although the Bible was read most by
merchants and lesser gentry, many literate labourers
began to read it too . Some of them understood the
Bible in a new and revolutionary way. As a result ,
by the middl e years of the seventeenth century
Puritani sm had led to the format ion of a large
number of small new reli gious groups, or "sects",
including the "Levellers".
Most of these Nonconfor mist sects lasted only a few
years, but two are important, the Bapt ists and the
Quakers, In spite of opposit ion in the seventeent h
century, both sects have survived and have had an
important effect on the life of the nati on. The
Quakers became part icularly famous for their
reforming social work in the eighteenth century.
These sects brought hope ro many of the poor and
the powerless. Social reform and the later growth of
trade uni onism both owed much to
Nonconformism. In spite of their good work,
however, the Nonconformists cont inued to be
disliked by the ruling class until th e end of the
nine tee nth century.
The Anglican Church, unlike the Nonconformist
churches, was strong politically, but it became
weaker intellectually. The great religious writers of
the period, Joh n Bunyan, who wrote The Pilgrim's
Progress , and John Milton, who wrote Paradise Lost,
were both Puritan.
For some Nonconfor mists, the opposit ion to th eir
beliefs was too great to bear. They left Britain to
live a free life in the new found land of America. In
1620, the " Pilgrim Fat hers" sailed in a ship called
the Mayflower to Massachusetts. Catholic families
settled in Maryland for the same reasons. But most
of the 400,000 or so who left England were young
men without fami lies, who did so for economic and
not religious reasons. They wanted the chance to
start a new life. At the same time the re were other
people coming in from abroad to live in Britain.
Cromwell allowed Jews to settle again, the first Jews
since th e earlier community had been expelled 350
years earlier. And after 1685 many French
Protestants, known as Huguenots, escaped from
Louis XIV's persecuti on and settled in Britain.
The revol ut ion in religious thinking was happening
at the same rime as a revol ution in scientific
thinking. Careful study of the na tural world led to
important ne w discoveries.
It was not the first t ime that the people of Britain
had taken a lead in scient ific matt ers. Al most a
thousand years earlier, the English monk and
historian, Bede, had argued that the earth stood
still, fi xed in space, and was surrounded by seven
15 Life and thought
heavens. This. of course, was not correct, but no
one doubted him for centuries. In the twelfth
century, during th e reign of Henry I, anot he r
English scient ist had gained European fame. He was
Adelard of Bath , and he played a large part in the
revolut ion in scient ific thi nking at the t ime. He
knew that the Church considered his ideas
dangerous. II Ido not want to cla im." he wrote,
"t ha t God is less than all-powerful. But nature has
its own patterns and order, and we should listen to
those who have learn t something of it. "
In the thirtee nth and early fourteent h centuries
English scient ists, most of them at the University of
Oxford, had led Europe. Friar Roger Bacon, one of
the more famous of them, had experimented with
light , heat and magnetism. Anot her, Wi lliam of
Oc kham, had studied falling objects. Another,
Wi lliam Marlee, had been one of th e first to keep a
careful record of the weather. Chaucer himself
wrote a book to teach his son how to use an
astrolabe. At the same time, the pract ical effects of
such curiosity were seen in new machinery, water
mill s, geared wheels and lathes.
But th e seventeenth century saw the development
of scient ifi c thin king on an ent irely new scale. The
new mood had been established at the very
beginni ng of the century by a remarkable man ,
Francis Bacon. He became James I's Lord
Chance llor, but he was bette r known for his work
on scient ifi c met hod. Every scient ific idea, he
argued, must be tested by expe riment. With idea
and experiment following one after t he other,
eventually the whole natural world would be
understood. In the rest of the centu ry Brit ish
scient ists put these ideas into pract ice. The British
have remained at the front of expe riment and
research ever since.
In 1628 Wi lliam Harvey discovered the circulation
of blood and this led to great adva nces in
medicine and in the study of the human body. The
scient ists Robert Bovle and Robert Hooke used
Har vey's methods when they made discoveries in
the chemistry and mechani cs of breathing.
These scienti fic studies were encouraged by the
Sruarts, The Royal Society, founded by the Stuart
99
An Illustrated History of Britain
monarchy, became an important centre where
thinkers could meet. argue, enquire and share
informati on. Cha rles Il, a strong supporter of its
work. gave the Royal Soc iety firm direction "to
examine all systems. theories, principles . . .
elements, histories and experiments of things
natural, mathematical and mechanical".
In 1666 the Ca mbridge Professor of Mathemati cs.
Sir Isaac Newton, began to study gravit y,
publishing his important discovery in 1684. In 1687
he publi shed Principia. on "the mathematic al
principles of natural phil osoph y", perhaps the
greatest book in the history of science . Newton's
work remained the basis of physics until Einstein's
discoveries in the twentieth century. Newton' s
import ance as a "founding father" of modern
science was recognised in his own time, and
Alexander Pope, a leading poet of the day. summed
it up neatl y:
_ _ 0-1":'.(M£R:4..'f Sn:U, ATA.' I . ~
The Royal Observatory at Greenwichwas fouruled by Charles H. who had a
great interest inscientific meners . On the left a quadrant is being used, larger
but similar to thoseusedfor navigation on ocean,goingships. On the right an
extremely longtelescope is beingusedto observe the heavenly bodies.
lOO
Na ture, and Nature' s laws lay hid in ni ght:
God said. Let Newton be! and all was light.
Newton had been encouraged and financed by his
friend . Edmund Halley, who is mostly remembered
for tracking a comet (Hallev's Co met ) in 1682.
There was at that t ime a great deal of interest in
astronomy. The discovery of the geometric
movement of stars and planet s destroyed old bel iefs
in astrology and magic. Everything. it seemed, had
a natural explanation.
It was no acc ident that th e greatest British architect
of the time. Chrisrophe r Wren , was also Professor
of Astronomy at Oxford. In 1666. following a year
of terribl e plague. a fire destroyed most of the city
of London. Eighty-seven churches. including the
great medieval cat hedral of St Paul , were destroyed.
Wr en was ordered to rebuild them in the modern
style. whi ch he did with skill.
15 Life and thought
When London was re/milt, a new law made sure that all buildings were made
ofbrickor stone. The jewel of the new city was the new cathedral, designed
by Sir Chriswpher Wren. Almost every chuTch in the new city was also
designed by Wren, or by his (lble assistant, NichoklS Hawksmoor. Although
some buildings were pul/cddoum and others builtduring the next 250 years,
lhe city only dumged significantly in the rebuilding lhat followed the Second
WorldWar.
As a result of the rapid spread of literacy and the
improveme nt in print ing techn iques, the first
newspapers appeared in the seventeenth century.
They were a new way of spreading all kinds of
ideas, scientific, reli gious and literary. Many of
them incl uded advert isements. In 1660 Charles II
advert ised for his lost dog.
Life and work in the Stuart age
The situat ion for the poor improved in the second
half of the seventeent h century. Prices fell
compared with wages, and fewer people asked for
help from the parish. But it was the middle groups
who continued to do well. Many who started life as
yeoman farmers or traders became minor gentry or
merchants. Part of their success result ed from a
strong interest in farming improvements, which
could now be studied in the many new books on
the subject .
By the middl e of the century th e government had
already begun to control the trade in cereals to
make sure that merchants did not export these
whil e Britain still needed the m. However , by 1670
Brit ain was able to export cereals to Europe, where
living condit ions, part icularly for the poor, were
much worse than in Britain. This was partly the
result of the Thirty Years War, 1618- 48, which
had badly damaged European agriculture.
101
An Illust rated History of Britain
102
"The Tichbome Dole", a late setJenteenth,centurypicture, showsa
Hampshirelandowner, his fami ly, servantsandfarm tenants. It shows the
way in whichdress differed according to class andoccupation. One of the
servantson the left is black, while {here is a QUllker woman (holding a baby)
among thefarmingpeople on the right.
15 Life and thought
Trade within Britain itself changed enormously in
the seventeenth century. The different regions
became less economically separate from each other.
No place in Britain was more tha n seventy-five
miles from the sea, and by 1690 few places were
more than twenty miles from a river or canal.
These waterways became important means of
transport, allowing each region to develop its own
special produce. Kent , for example, grew more fruit
and vegetables to export to other regions, and
became known as "t he garden of England" .
Improved transport result ed in a change in buying
and selling. Most towns did not have shops before
the seventeenth century. The y had market days
when farmers and manufactur ers sold their produce
in the town square or market place. By 1690,
however, most towns also had proper shops.
Shopkeepers travelled arou nd rhe country to buy
goods for their shops, whi ch were new and exciting
and drew peopl e from the country to see the m.
Towns which had shops grew larger, while smaller
towns without shops remained no more than
villages.
London remained far larger tha n any other town,
with more than 500,000 people by 1650. It
cont rolled almost all the sea trade with other
countries. The next largest cit ies, Norwich,
Newcastle and Bristol, had only 25,000 each.
(London's great plague of 1665 killed 68,000 people
in only six months, almost equal to th e tot al
populat ion of these three cities. ) Aft er the fire of
1666, the richer citizens for the first time had wate r
supplied to their houses, through spec ially made
wooden pipes. The city streets had traffic jams just
as bad as today's, and the noise was proba bly far
worse, with th e sound of iron -t vred wheels and th e
hammering of craftsmen.
In London th ere was a new class of rich
"aristocrats"I most of whom belonged to the
nobility, but not all. Money could buy a hi gh
position in British society more easily than in
Europe. After 1650 the rich began to meet in the
new coffeehouses, which quickly became the
meeting places for conversation and politics.
103
An Illustrated History of Britain
Coffeeholtses became vel)' popular er the l.'nd of rhe sevenreemh cemltry,
anJ remained so for much of the eighreenth century. \Vhile coffeehouses
were visiredonl)' by men, rheir wives incremingl)' held rell/xlnies«r home.
Tea drinkiTl,f(, and rhe specialurensils necessary for rhis, becameVCT)' {)l.JplJ!ar
among rhe wealrhy. Ar fint rea was made in silver reapHIS and was drunk
frombowls wirholll handles. In the secondhalfof rhe cell(llrychirUl pots
replaced silver ones, and teacups replaced bowb. These fl.'acups sttr in
saucers, rhe linle dishes rhar were nonnallyused {crr holding smzces.
Some of the old nobility, however , did not accept
th e new rich as equals. Whil e new Sruarr yeomen
wanted to be genrrv, descendant s of the older
Tudor gentry started to call themselves "squires",
the ruling class of the countryside. They did not
wish to be confused with the new gentry.
The squires and JPs governed locally during
Cromwell's Prot ectorate , and continued to do so
afterwards. They had the power to tax for local
purposes, to call out soldiers and to try most
criminals. They had the same interests as the
government, and were therefore usually willing to
104
pay taxes. As one gentleman said in 1625, "we
must not give an example of disobedience to those
beneath us".
While the rich of London visited the coffeehouses,
the ordinary people went to the drinking houses,
called "alehouses", in town and country. Th ese
soon became the centre of popular culture, where
news and ideas could be passed on. By th e end of
the century the government had secret informers
watching the aleho uses and listeni ng for rebellious
talk.
Family life
After the rapid increase in populat ion in the T udor
cent ury, th e number of birt hs began to fall in the
Stuart age. In 1600 Britain and Irel and had a total
populat ion of 6 million. Alt ho ugh it increased to
7.7 milli on by 1650, th e rate th en starte d to fall.
No one is quite sure why the populati on either rose
so rapidl y in the T udor age. or steadied during the
seventeenth century.
One reason for the sma ller number of birt hs was
that people marri ed later tha n anywhe re else in
Europe. Most people marri ed in their mid twenti es,
and by th e end of the cent ury t he average age of
first marriages was eve n older, at twent y-seven.
This. of course. meant tha t women had fewer
babies. Some women tried to control the size of
their families by breast -feeding babies for as long as
possible. It also seems that more men remained
unmarried than before. But th e pattern of
populat ion growth and human behaviour remains
puzzling . A study of south Wales, for example,
shows that one in three of all heads of gentry
families remained unmarri ed at th e end of th e
seventeenth century. A cent ury ear lier. hardl y any
heads of gent ry families in th e area had remained
unmarried. There is uncertainty as to why this
should have been.
Bythe end of the sixteenth cent ury there were
already signs that the autho rity of the husband was
increasing. This resulted from the weakening of
wider family ties. Furthermore, just as th e power of
the monarch beca me more absolute during the
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, so also
did that of th e husband and fathe r. But whil e the
power of the monarchy was brought under control.
the autho rity of the head of the family continued to
grow.
This power partl y resulted from the increasing
autho rity of the Church foll owing th e Reformati on.
The Protestant s believed th at personal faith was
importa nt, and put extra responsibilit y on the head
of the famil y for its spiritua l welfare . The fathe r
always led da ily family prayers and Bible readi ng. In
some ways he had taken the place of the pri est. As
a result . hi s wife and children belonged to him,
15 Lire and thought
mind, body and soul. Absolute obedience was
expected. Disobedience was considered an act
against God as well as the head of the house.
One result of th is increase in the fathe r's autho rity
was that from the early seve nteent h century
children were frequently beate n to break th eir
"sinful" will. The child who was no t beat en was
unusual. Wi lliam Perm, the Quaker who founded
the colony of Pennsylvani a in north Ame rica.
adv ised parents to " love them [th eir children] with
wisdom, correct them with affection. never strike
in passion. and suit the corrections to their ages as
well as their fault." It is un likel y his adv ice was
accept ed except among the Quaker sect, which
rejected all violence. Anot her resul t was the loss of
legal rights by women over whatever property they
had brought into a marri age.
However , the Protestant religion also gave new
import ance to the indi vidual, especially in
Presbyterian Scotl and. Many Scott ish women were
not afraid to stand up to both th eir husbands and
the gove rnment on matters of persona l belief. In
fact many of th ose who chose to di e for the ir beli efs
during Scotla nd's "killing times" were wome n. This
self-confidence was almost certa inly a result of
greate r educat ion and reli gious de mocracy in
Scotla nd at th is t ime.
105
The eighteenth century
16 The political world
Politics and finance' Wilkes and liberty · Radicalism and the loss of
the American colonies' Ireland ' Scotland
Well before the end of the eighteenth century
Britain was as powerful as France. This resulted
from the growth of irs industries and from the
wealth of its large new trading empire, part of
which had been cap tured from th e French. Britain
nowhad the strongest navy in the world ; the navy
controlled Britain 's own trade rout es and
endangered those of its enemies. It was the
deliberate policy of the govern ment to create th is
trading empire, and to protect it wit h a strong
navy. This was made possible by the way in which
government had developed during the eighteent h
century.
For the first time, it was the king's mini sters who
were the real policy and decision -makers. Power
now belonged to the groups from which the
ministers came , and the ir supporters in Parliament.
These mini sters ruled ove r a country which had
become wealt hy through trade. This wealth , or
"capital", made possible bot h an agricultura l and an
industrial revolution which made Britain the most
advanced economy in the world.
However, there was an enormous price to pay,
because whil e a few people became richer, many
others lost their land , their homes and th eir way of
Hie. Families were driven off the land in another
period of enclosures. They became the working
The POTI of Bristol in [he eighteenthcenno-y. lnfLTIWrimUll traJ(' became the
basis of Britain's rise 10uUTldgreatness JuTing {he ceunsry. Britainfuul {he
bt?$! ships andalso the guns to force ir.s ui U",here trade alone didnOf
succeed. Brutal became the second largest city after Londonearly in lhe
cmfury, based on the rrianguwr [rad.: : Bri!ish·Jll<!Je goods ID ~ ' e s [ Afrka.
\t'esr African sla t'eS re me Neu: WOTId, andNeu' World sugar, oxron and
mco to Britain.
"proletar iat" of the ci ties that made Britain's trade
and industrial empire of the nineteenth century
possible. The invent ion of machinery destroyed the
old "co ttage industr ies" and creat ed factor ies. The
devel opment of industry led to th e sudden growth
of cit ies like Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester
and Liverpool and other centres in the north
Midlands.
None of this could have happened without great
dange r to the established orde r. In France the
misery of the poor and the power of the trad ing
classes led to revolution in 1789. The Briti sh
government was afraid of dangerous revolutionary
ideas spreading from Franc e to the discontented in
Britain . In fact , Britain ended the century fighting
against the great French leader, Napoleon
Bonaparte, and eventually defeating him. In this
way, perhaps, many who might have been
discontented were more conce rned with th e defeat
of Napoleon. Revolution was st ill a possibility, but
Britain was saved partly by the hi gh level of local
control of the ruling class in the countrys ide and
partly by Merhodism, a new religious movement
which offered hope and self-respect to the new
prol et ariat . Methodism was careful to deal only
with heavenly matters. It did not quest ion polit ical
or social injustices on earth.
Politics and finance
When Queen Anne, the last of the St uarts, died in
1714, it was not entirely cert ain that the Protes tant
ruler of Hanover, George, would become king.
There were some Tories who wanted the deposed
107
An Illustrated History of Britain
james ll's son to ret urn to Britain as j ames Il l. If he
had given up Catholicism and accepted the
Anglican religion he probably would have been
crowned j ames Ill. But like other members of his
famil y, j ames was unwi lling to change his mind,
and he would not give up his religion. Nor would
he give up his claim to the throne, so he tr ied to
win it by force.
In 1715 he started a rebeilion against George I,
who had by this ti me arrived from Hanover. But
th e rebellion was a disaster, and George's army had
little diffi cul ty in defeating the English and Sco tt ish
"[ acobites", as Stuart supporters were known .
Because of the Tory connec tion with the [ acobir es,
King George allowed the Whigs to form his
government.
Government power was increased because the new
king spoke only German, and did not seem very
interested in his new kingdom. Among the king's
mini sters was R o b ~ r t Wa lpole, who remained the
greatest political leader for ove r twenty years. He is
considered Britain's first Prime Min ister.
Walpole came to power as a result of his financial
ability. At the end of the seventeent h cent ury the
government had been forced to borrow money in
order to pay for the war with France. There was
nothi ng new about this, except that because of the
war the government 's borrowing increased
enormously. In 1694, a group of financiers who lent
to the government decided to establish a bank , and
the government agreed to borrow from it alone.
The new bank, called th e Bank of England , had
aut hor ity to raise money by printing "bank notes".
This was not an ent irely new idea. For hundreds of
years bank ers and money dealers had been able to
give people "promisory notes" signed by
the mselves. These could be handed on as payment
to a third or fourt h person . This way of making
trade easier had been made lawful duri ng the reign
of Henry I, six hundred years earlier. The cheques
we use today devel oped from these promi sory not es.
At a time when many people had money to invest ,
there was popular interest in financi al matters.
People wanted to invesr money in some of the
trading companies doing business in the West
108
lndies, the East lndies or in other newly developi ng
areas. The possibility of high profits, and the
excitement thi s possibilit y caused, made the cost of
a share in these trading adventures expensive. In
1720 the South Sea Company offered to pay off the
government's nat ional debt if it was given
monopoly rights to tradi ng in the Sout h Seas. It
raised mone y by selling shares which quickly rose in
value with the increasing excitement . When
people's con fidence in the South Sea Company
suddenly fell, so did the price of shares, and
thousands of people who had invested their money
lost' everything. Robert Wa lpole was able to bring
back publi c confidence. He made sure that
something like the "South Sea Bubble" could not
happen again. This was the first step in making
companies responsible to the public for the money
which they borrowed by the sale of sha res.
In the other countr ies of Europe kings and queens
had absolute power. Britain was unusual , and
Wa lpole was determined to keep the Crown under
th e firm control of Parliament . He knew that with
the new Ge rman monarchy this was more possible
than it had been before.
Walpole skilfully developed the idea that
gove rnment ministers should work together in a
small group, which was called the "Cabine t". He
int roduced the idea tha t any minister who disagreed
deeply with other Cabine t ministers was expected
to resign. From thi s basic idea grew another
impor tant rule in British politics: that all members
of the Cabinet were together responsible for policy
decisions. Wa lpole buil t on the polit ical results of
the Glorious Revol ut ion of 1688. It was he who
made sure th at the power of the king would always
be limi ted by the const itut ion.
The limits to monarchy were these: the king could
not be a Catholic; the king could not remove or
cha nge laws; the king was dependent on Parl iament
for his financial income and for his army. The king
was supposed to "choo se" his ministers. Even today
the government of Britain is "Her Majesty's
Go vernment". But in fact the mini sters belonged as
much to Parliament as they did to th e king.
Walpole wanted to avoid war and to increase taxes
so that the government could pay back everything
it had borrowed, and get rid of the nat ional deb t.
He put taxes on luxury goods, such as tea, coffee
and chocolate, all of which were drunk by the rich ,
and were brought to Britain from its new colonies
by wealt hy traders. Te a had become a nati on al
drink by 1700, when 50,000 kg were already being
import ed each year. Wa lpole raised the
government 's income, but thi s had little effect on
the national debt , and he became very unpopular.
The most importan t of Walpole's polit ical enemies
was William Pitt " the Elder", lat er Lord Chatha m,
Charham wanted Britain to be economically strong
in the world, and he agreed with Daniel Defoe, the
author of Robinson Crusoe, who had written in
1728, "Trade is the wealth of the world . Trade
makes the difference between rich and poor,
between one nat ion and anothe r." But trade also
involved compe tit ion. Cha rham had studied French
trade and industry, and he was certa in that Britain
must beat France in the race for an overseas trade
empire.
In 1733 France made an alliance wit h Spain.
Chatham feared that this alliance would give
France a trade advantage ove r Britain th rough freer
trade possibilit ies with the Spanish Empire in Sout h
America and the Far East. England had been trying
unsuccessfully to develop trade with the Spanish
Empire since the days of Drake. Once Char harn was
in the government, he decided to make the Brit ish
navy stronger than that of France or any ot her
nation . He also decided to take ove r as many as
possible of France's trading posts abroad.
War with France broke out in 1756. Britain had
already been invol ved in a war against France , from
1743 to 1748, concerning control of the Aust rian
Empire. However , thi s t ime Chatha rn left Britain's
ally, Prussia, to do most of the fi ght ing in Europe.
He direct ed Brit ish effort at destroying French
trade. The navy stopped French ships reachi ng or
leaving French ports.
The war against France's trade went on all over the
world. In Canada, the Brit ish took Quebec in 1759
and Montreal the following year. This gave the
16 The political world
Brit ish control of the important fish, fur and wood
trades. Meanwhil e the French navy was dest royed
in a battle near the coast of Spain. In Indi a, the
army of the Briti sh East India Company defeat ed
French armies both in Bengal, and in the sout h
near Madras, destroying French trade inte rests.
Many Indian princes allied themselves with one
side or the other. In defeating France, Britain
eventually went on to control most of India by
conquest or treaty with the prince s. Many Britons
started to go to India to make their fort une. Unlike
previous British t raders, they had littl e respect for
Indian people or for their culture. So, while India
became the "jewel in the Crown" of Britain's
foreign possessions, Brit ish-Indian relat ions slowly
went sour.
Meanwhi le, in 1759, Britain was drunk with
victory. "One is forced to ask every morning what
victory there is for fear of missing one," an
Englishman said at the time. British pride had
already been not iced by a Swiss visitor in 1727.
The British have a very hi gh opinion of
themselves, he wrot e, and they "t hink nothing is as
well done elsewhere as in their own country".
Brit ish pride was expressed in a national song
writt en in 1742: "Rule Britanni a, Britannia rule the
waves, Britons ne ver never never shall be slaves. II
But a new king, George Ill , came to the th rone in
1760. He did not wish Chatharn to cont inue an
expensive war. In 1763 George III made peace with
France. Britain did this without informing Prussia,
which was left to fight France alone.
For th e rest of the century, Britain's int ernat ional
trade increased rapidl y. By the end of the century
the West Indi es were the most profitable part of
Britain's new empire. They formed one corner of a
profitable trade tr iangle. Brit ish-made knives,
swords and cloth were taken to West Africa and
exchanged for slaves. These were taken to the West
Indies, and the ships returned to Britain carrying
sugar which had been grown by slaves. Britain's
colonies were an important marketplace in which
the British sold the goods they produced, from the
eighteent h century until th e end of the empire in
the twen tieth century.
109
An Illustrated History of Britain
An East IndiaCompany official
with his escort of locally recruited
soldiers. In India the officinls of
lhe East India Company made
public [onwoes for Britain, and
private fortunesfor themselves.
Many, however, didnozsurvive
lheeffects of heat anddisease.
On the whole Indian society
accepted"John Company", as
(he Eust India Company was
locally known, in bOlh lrade and
warfare as jusl cnorher element
in a complica(ed culluml scene.
India was used to invaders. it
was only in thenineteen(h
century that Indians began CO
hare the way lheBritishextended
!heir control oeer all lruliaand
the way that the Britishtreated
(hem.
Wilkes and liberty
George 1II was the fi rst Hanoverian to be born in
Britain . Unlike his father and grandfat her he had
no interest in Hanover. He wanted to take a more
active part in governing Britain, and in particular
he wished to be free to choose his own mini sters.
As long as he worked wit h the small number of
aristoc rats from which the king's mini sters were
chosen, and who controlled Parliament, it did not
seem as if he would have much difficulty.
Parliament st ill represented only a very small
number of people. In the eighteenth century only
house owners with a certain income had the right
to vote. This was based on ownership of land worth
forty shillings a year in th e count ies, but the
amount varied from town to town. As a result ,
while 'the mid-century population of Britain was
almost eight million, th ere were fewer th an
250,000 voters, 160,000 of them in the count ies
and 85,000 in the towns or "boroughs". Only 55 of
the 200 boroughs had more than 500 voters. The
othe rs were cont rolled by a small number of very
rich property owners, sometimes acting together as
a "borough corporat ion". Each county and each
borough sent two representat ives to Parliament.
110
This meant that bargains could be made between
the two most powerful groups of people in each
"constituency", allowing the chosen representative
of each group to be returned to Parli ament.
It was not diffi cul t for rich and powerful people
eithe r in th e boroughs or in the count ies to make
sure tha t the man they wanted was elec ted to
Parli ament . In the countryside, most ordinary
landowners also hel d land as tenants from the
greater landowners. At that time vot ing was not
done in sec ret , and no tenant would vote against
the wishes of his landlord in case he lost his land.
Othe r vote rs were frightened into vot ing for the
"right man", or persuaded by a gift of money. In
this way th e great landowning aristocrats were able
to control those who sat in Parli ament , and make
sure that MPs did what they wanted. Poli tics was a
matte r only for a small number of th e gent ry who
had close con nec t ions with thi s poli tical
aristocracy. No one could describe Parliament in
those days as democrat ic.
However , th ere was one MP, John Wilkes, who
saw things differently. Wilkes was a Wi, ig, and did
not like the new government of George Ill. Unlike
almost every othe r MP, Wilkes also believed that
politi cs shou ld be open to free discussion by
everyone. Free speech , he believed, was the basic
right of every indivi dual. When George III made
peace with France in 1763 without telling his all y
Frederick of Prussia, Wilkes printed a srrong attack
on the government in his own newspaper, The
North Briton. The king and his mini sters were
extremely angry. They were unwilling to accept free
speech of this kind. Wilkes was arrested and
imprisoned in the Tower of London and all his
private paper s were taken from h is home .
Wilkes fought back when he was tried in court .
The government claimed it had arrested Wilkes "of
state necessity". The judge turned down thi s
argument with the famous judgement th at "public
policy is not an argument in a court of law". Wilkes
won his case and was released. His victory
established principl es of the greatest importance:
that the freedom of the indi vidual is more
import ant than the interests of the state, and that
no one could be arrested without a proper reason.
Government was not free to arrest whom it chose.
Government, too, was under the law. Wilkes's
victory angered th e king, but made Wilkes the most
popular man in London.
The ruling cl ass was not used to considering the
opinions of ordinary peopl e. Between 1750 and
16 The political world
1770 the number of newspapers had increased.
These were read by the enormous number of literat e
peopl e who could never hope to vot e, bur who
were interested in the important matters of the
times. They were mainl y clerks, skilled workers and
tradesmen . Improved roads meant that a newspaper
pr inted in London could be reprinted in Liverpool
two days later.
Newspapers in their turn increased the amount of
political discussion . Even working people read the
paper s and discussed politics and the royal fami ly,
as foreign visitors noticed. "Conversation" clubs
met in different towns to discuss questions like
"Under what conditions is a man most free?", or
whether secret voting was necessary for political
freedom. The fact th at ordina ry people who had no
part to play in politics asked and discussed such
questions explains why John Wilkes was so popul ar.
His struggle showed that publi c opinion was now a
new and powerful influenc e on politi cs.
Wilkes's victory was important because he had
shown that Parliament did not represent the
ordinary peop le, and that the ir indi vidual freedom
was not assured. As a result of his victory people
began to organi se political act ivity outside
Parliament in order to win their basic rights.
Politics were no longer a monopoly of the
Thebatlleof CuUoden in eany
1746 (see page 113) marked the
end nor onlyof Bonnie Prince
Cfulrlie's atrempf to regain (he
fhmne for [heSue-rs. It also
marked fhe beginning of [he
deSfruction of the Highland clan
system. D<wid Moner. fhe
painfer. was ableto use Highland
prisoners taken asCullodenfor
this pcnoe. letherefore shows
the real dress of fhe Highlanders.
Although all thesemen arefrom
ClanCcmcron. !he vane!)' in
their dress andtartan shows if
U '(1.S nor eXi1Cfly a uniform. These
prisoners were sent to work on
plantations in !he Ne«-World.
The anUf died as a debtor in
Fleel prison.
111
An Illustrated History of Britain
landowning gent ry. Newspapers were allowed to
send their own reporters to listen to Parli ament and
write about its discussions in th e newspapers. The
age of public opinion had arrived.
Radicalism and the loss of the
American colonies
In 1764 there was a serious quarrel over taxation
between the British government and its colonies in
Ame rica. It was a perfect example of the kind of
freedom for which Wilkes had been fighting. The
British government continued to think of th e
colonists as Brit ish subjects. In 1700 there had been
only ZOO,OOO colonists, but by 1770 there were 2.5
million. Such large numbers needed to be dealt
with carefully.
Some American colonists decided that it was not
lawful for the Brit ish to tax them witho ut their
agreement. Poli tical opinion in Britain was divided.
Some felt that the tax was fair because the money
would be used to pay for the defence of the
American colonies against French attack. But
severa l important polit icians, including Wilkes and
Cha tham, agreed with the colonists that there
should be Uno taxation without representation",
112
, "
\
,
1\
,
i
The Boston Teapany, /773,
wasone of the famous events
leading to openrebellion bythe
Americanco«mists. It was a
protest against British taxation
and British monopolies on
imports. Americancolonists,
dressed as nacoc Americans,
threwa shipload of reainto lhe
harbour ratherthanpay taxon
it.
In 1773 a group of colonists at th e port of Boston
threw a shipload of tea into the sea rather than pay
tax on it. The event became known as "the Boston
Teapartv". The British gove rnment answered by
closing the port. But the colonists then decided to
prevent Brit ish goods from entering America until
the port was opened again. This was rebellion, and
the government decided to defeat it by force. The
American Wa r of Independence had begun.
The war in America lasted from 1775 unt il 1783.
The government had no respect for the politics of
the colonists, and th e British army had no respect
for their fi ghting ability. The result was a disastrous
defeat for the British government . It lost everything
except for Canada.
Many British poli ticians openly suppor ted the
colonists. They were called "radicals". For the first
t ime British politicians supported th e rights of the
king's subjects abroad to govern themselves and to
fi ght for th eir rights against the king. The war in
Ame rica gave strength to the new ideas of
democracy and of independence.
Two of th e more important radicals were Edmund
Burke and Tom Paine. Paine was the first to suggest
that th e Ame rican colonists should become
independent of Brit ain. Burke, who himself held a
mixture of both radical and conservative views,
argued that the king and his advisers were once
again too powerful, and that Parliament needed to
get back prope r control of policy.
Ireland
[ames lI's defeat by William of Orange in 1690 had
severe and long-term effects on the Irish people.
Over th e next half century the Protestant
parliament in Dublin passed laws to prevent the
Catholics from taking any part in nati onal life.
Catholics could not become members of the Dublin
parliament, and could not vote in parliamentary
elections. No Catholic could become a lawyer, go
to university, join the navy or accept any publ ic
post . Catho lics were not even allowed to own a
horse wort h more than £5. It was impossible for
Catholics to have their children educated according
to their religion, because Catholic schools were
forbidden. Although there were still far more
Catholics than Prot estants, they had now become
second-class cit izens in their own land .
New laws were passed which divided Catholic
families. The son of Carholic parents who became
Proresranr cou ld take ove r his parents' propert y and
use it as he wanted. These actions put the Irish
Catholic population in the same position as ot he r
colonised peoples later on. Hatred between the
ruling Prot estant settlers and th e ruled Catholic
Irish was unavoidable.
By the I 770s, however, life had become easier and
some of the worst laws against Cat holics were
removed. But not everyone wanted to give the
Catho lics more freedom. In Ulster, the northern
part of Ireland, Protestants formed the first "Orange
Lodges", societ ies which were against any freedom
for the Cat holics.
In orde r to increase British control Ireland was
united with Britain in 180 1, and the Dublin
parliament closed. The United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland lasted for 120 years. Poli ticians
had promi sed Irish leaders that when Ireland
became part of Britain the Cat holics would get
16 The political world
equal voting opport unit ies. But George 1II,
supported by most Tories and by many Prot estant
Irish landlords, refused to let thi s happen.
Scotland
Scotland also suffered from the efforts of the Sruarts
to win back the throne. The first "Jacobite" revolt
to win th e crown for j ames Il' s son, in 1715, had
been unsuccessful, The Stuarts tried again in 1745,
when [arnes Il's grandson, Prince Cha rles Edward
St uart, better known as "Bonny Prince Charlie",
landed on the west coast of Scotland. He persuaded
some clan chiefs to join him. Many of these chiefs
had great diffi cul ty persuading the men in their
clans to join th e revolt. Some were told their
homes would be burnt if they did not fight. Most
clans did not join th e rebellion, and nor did the
men of the Scottis h Lowlands.
Bonny Prince Cha rlie was more successful at first
tha n anyone could have imagined. His army of
Highlanders entered Edinbu rgh and defeated an
English army in a surprise attack. The n he marched
south. Panic spread through England, because
much of the Brit ish army was in Europe fighting the
French . But success for Bonny Prince Chatl ie
depended on Englishmen also joining his army.
When the Highland army was ove r halfway to
Londo n, however, it was clear that few of the
English would join him, and the Highl anders
themselves were unhappy at being so far from
home. The rebels moved back to Scotland. Early in
1746 they were defeated by the British army
at Culloden, near Inverness. The rebellion was
fi nished.
The English army behaved with cruel ty. Many
Highl anders were killed, even those who had not
joined the rebellion. Others were sent to work in
America. Their homes were destroyed, and their
farm animals killed. The fear of the Highl and
danger was so great that a law was passed forbidding
Highland ers to wear their traditional skirt, the kilt .
The old patte rns of the kil t, called tart ans, and the
Scottis h musical instrument, the bagpipe, were also
forbidden. Some did not obey this law, and were
sho t .
113
17 Life in town and country
Town life ' The rich ' The countryside • Family life
Town life
In 1700 England and Wales had a popul ati on of
about 5.5 milli on. This had increased very little by
1750, but then grew quickly to about 8.8 million by
the end of the century. Including Ireland and
Scotland, th e total popu lat ion was about 13
million.
In 1700 England was st ill a land of small villages. In
the northern areas of England, in Lancashire and
West Yorkshire, and in the West Midlands, the
large cities of the future were only just beginning to
grow. By the middle of the century Liverpool.
Manchester. Birmingham. Sheffield and Leeds were
already large. But such new towns were st ill treated
as vi llages and so had no representation in
Parliament.
All the towns smelled bad. There were no drains.
Streets were used as lavatories and the dirt was
seldom removed. In fact people added to it , leaving
in the streets the rubbish from the marketplace and
from houses. The streets were muddy and na rrow,
some only two metres wide. Around London and
other larger towns a few vegetable growers took the
dirt from the st reets to put on their fields.
The towns were centres of disease. As a result only
one child in four in London lived to become an
adult. It was the poor who died youngest . They
were bur ied together in large holes dug in the
ground. These were not cove red with earth unti l
they were full. It was hardly surpri sing that poor
people found comfort in drinking alcohol and in
trying to win money from card games. Quakers,
shocked by the terrible effects of gin drinking,
devel oped the beer industry in orde r to replace gin
with a less damaging drink .
114
During the eighteenth cenrurv, efforts were made to
make towns healthier . Streets were built wider . so
that carriages drawn by horses could pass each
othe r. From 1734. London had a street lighting
system. After 1760 many towns asked Parli ament to
allow them to tax their cit izens in order to provide
social services. such as street cleaning and lighting.
Each house owner had to pay a local tax, the
amount or "rate" of which was decided by the local
council or corporation.
Cat holics and Jews were st ill not allowed into
Parliament, and for Nonconformists it continued to
be difficult . but they were all able to belong to the
town counci ls that were now being set up. As these
"local authorities" grew, they brought toge ther the
merchants and industrial leaders. These started to
create a new administrative class to carry out the
counc il's will. Soon London and the ot her towns
were so clean and t idy that they became the
wonder of Europe . Indeed London had so much to
offer that the great literary figure of the day. Samuel
[ ohnson, made the now famous remark, "When a
man is ti red of London, he is tired of life. For there
is in London all that life can afford."
There were four main classes of people in
eighteenth-century towns: the weal th y merchants;
the ordinary merchants and traders; th e skilled
craftsmen; and the large number of workers who
had no skill and who could not be sure of finding
work from one day to ano ther.
The rich
Social conditions were probably better than in any
othe r country in Europe. British aristoc rats had less
power over th e poor than European aristoc rats had.
In 1760 an English lord was actually hanged for
Hogar!h's famous "Gin Lane" wasoneof a series of powerful pictures of the
less pleasant aspeCl.S of Englis hsocial life. This picture iUus tTates theevilsof
drink. in fact gin drinkingled to so muchdeathandCTiminalit)' [hat a
number of Quakers began brewing beeT commerciall)' as analtematiw, less
damaging, drink. Thecellar enrrcnce. bcncmleft , has the inscription
"DrinkfOT a Penn)' , dead drunk fOT Twopence, clean straw fOT Nothing. "
This isa later coP)' of Hogarth's originalblack andwhite print.
killing his servant. There were few places in Europe
where that would have happened. To foreigners,
used ro the absolute power of the king and his
nobles, English law seemed an example of perfect
justice, even if it was not really so.
Foreigners not iced how easy it was for the British to
move up and down the social "ladder". In London a
man who dressed as a genrleman would be treat ed
asone. It was difficult to see a clea r difference
between the aristoc racy, the gent ry and the middle
class of merchants. Most classes mixed freely
together.
However , the difference between rich and poor
could be very great. The duke of Newcasrle, for
example; had an income of £ 100,000 eac h year.
17 Life in (Own and co untry
At the other end of thesocial scale, Thomas Gainsborough, perhaps
England's finest portrait painter. painted fOT the richandfamous . "The
MOTTling Walk" has a clam domesticit)'about it. There is also
inforrn.aUt)' anddeep affection in this picture, quite di!feTent fTom the
fonnalir y of "TheTichbome Dole" (pog" 102- 103) or !he TuJo,
family (pog, 83).
The workers on his lands were lucky if th ey were
paid more rha n £15 a year.
The comfortab le life of the gentry must have been
dull mosr of rhe time. The men went hunting and
riding, and carried out "improvements" to their
estates. Out ing the eighteent h cent ury these
improvements included rebuilding many great
houses in the classical style. It was also fashionable
to arrange natural-looking gardens and parks to
create a carefully made "view of nat ure" from th e
windows of the house. Some of the gentry became
interested in collect ing trees or plants from abroad.
Women's lives were more bor ing, although during
the wint er ther e were freque nt visits to London,
where dances and part ies were held. But even the
115
An Illustrated History of Britain
Somerseuhire Buildings in Milsom
Street, Bath, J788, UJeTe among
!he finesl lOW71 houses built i, !he
"Georgian" period. Bath has
survitred as England's best
presened Georgian city because il
UIaS very fashiO'lUlble during ,he
eighteenrh century, but suddenly
ceased zo be so al [he beginningof
[he nineteenth century. As a resulr
[he economyof Barh. based upon
tourism, collapsed andveryfewof
the splendid Georgian buildings
UJeTe replaced during !he nineteenth
or twentiethcenturies.
richest women' s lives were limit ed by the idea that
they could not take a sha re in more serious marrers.
They were only allowed to amuse themselves. As
one lord wrote: "Women are only ch ildren of larger
growth . . . A man of sense on ly plays with them
. . . he neither tells them about, nor trusts them.
with serious matters."
During the eighteenth cent ury, people bel ieved
that the natural spring waters in "spa" towns such
as Bath were good for their health. These towns
became fashionable places where most people went
ro meet ot he r members of high society. Bath,
whi ch is srill rhe best example of an eighteenth-
century English city, was fi lled wit h peopl e who
wished to be "seen". In Scotland a "New Town" on
the edge of th e old city of Edinburgh was builr by
Scotland's great architect , Roberr Adam. Like
Bath, it represented the height of eighteent h-
century British civilised life.
The countryside
The cultural life of Edinburgh was in toral contrast
with life in the Scorrish Highlands. Because the kilt
and tartan were forbi dden, everyone born since
1746 had grown up wear ing Lowland (English)
clothes. The old way of colouring and making
tartan patterns from local plants had long been
forgorren. By the time the law forbidding the kilt
and tartan was abolished in 1782, it was too late.
116
Highland dress and tart ans became fancy dress, ro
be worn by Sco ttish soldiers and by lovers of rhe
past , bur nor by rhe real Highlanders. Very few of
rhe tart ans th at were worn after 1782 would have
been recognised as "clan" tartans by the men who
had fought at Culloden.
The real disasrer in th e Highl ands, however, was
economic. Towards the end of th e eight eenth
cent ury, the cla n chiefs began to realise tha t money
could be made from sheep for the wool trade. They
began to push the peopl e off th e clan lands, and to
repl ace them with sheep, a process known as the
clearances. The chiefs treated the clan lands as
their personal propert y, and the law supported
the m, just as it supported the enclosure of common
land in England. Between 1790 and 1850 hundreds
of thousands of Highlanders lost th eir old way of
life so that thei r chiefs could make a profit from the
land. Many Highlanders, men , women and
children, lived poor on the streets of Glasgow.
Others went to begin a new life, mai nl y in Canada,
where many settled with ot he r members of their
clan. A smaller number wen t to Australi a in the
ni neteenth cent ury. Clan societ y in the Highlands
had gone for ever.
In England the count ryside cha nged even more
than the towns in the eighteenth century. Most
fanni ng ar the beginning of the century was still
don e as it had been for centuries. Each village srood
in the middle of three or four large fields, and the
villagers together decided what to grow, although
individuals cont inued to work on theit own small
strips of land.
During the eighteenth century most of thi s land was
enclosed. The enclosed land was not used for sheep
farming, as it had been in Tudor t imes, but for
mixed animal and cereal farms. Peopl e with mon ey
and influence, such as th e village squire, persuaded
thei r MP to pass a law through Parli ament allowing
them to take over common land and to enclose it.
The MP was willing to do thi s because the
landowner was often able to help him at the next
electi on with the votes of those who worked for
him.
One main cause of these enclosures was th at a
number of the greater landlords, including the
arisrocracy, had a great deal of money to invest.
This had come partly from profits made from
increased trade, especi ally with the West Indies and
wi th India. It also came from investment in coa l
mines and iron works, bot h of which had a growing
part of the economy. Fina lly, some aristocrats had
purc hased development sites on the edge of
London, most notably the duke s of Bedford and
\Vestminster.
Most of them wanted to invest their money on the
land, and having improved their own land , and
built fine count ry houses, they looked to other
land. Theit reason was that farming had become
much more profirable . From the mid-seventeenth
cent ury there had been a number of improvements
in fanning, and a growth of interest in farming
methods. Britain and Holl and were better at
farming than any ot her country in Europe . At the
beginning of the eightee nth ce ntury a "seed drill",
amachi ne for sowi ng corn seed in straight lines and
at fixed inter vals, was inve nted by[ erhro Tul!. This
made fields easier to weed, and made it possible to
produce a great er crop. Other farme rs had started to
understand how to improve soil. At the same time,
root crops grown in Holland were introduced in
Britain.
Tradition ally the land had been allowed to rest
every three years. But by growing root crops one
17 Life in town and coun try
The enclosures of village fannland changed much of
England's landscape. In this aerial dew of Padbury, Buckinghamshire. {he
oldmip fanning pcnern cansoUbeseen, as weUas {he newhedgerows
marking rhe enclosures of {he genfry farmers.
year, animal food the nex t, and wheat the third,
farmers could now produce more. Growing animal
food also made it possible to keep animals th rough
the winter. This was an important new
deve lopment. Before the mid-eighteenth century
most animals were killed before winter because
there was never eno ugh food to keep them until the
following spring. For the first time people could
now eat fresh meat all the year round.
These improvements, however, were a good deal
more difficult to introduce when most farmland was
st ill organ ised by the whole vi llage community as it
had been for centuries. No strip farmer could afford
the necessary machi ne ry. and it was not worth
buying machi nery for such small amounts of land in
three different areas around the village. Richer
farmers want ed to change the system of farming,
including the system of landholding. With one
large area for each farm the new machinery and
methods would work very well. They had the
money to do thi s, and could expect the help of the
village squire and their MP, who were also rich
farmers with the same interests. They had a strong
economi c argument for introducing change because
117
An Illustrated History of Britai n
it was clea r that the new methods would produce
more food for eac h acre of land than the tradit iona l
methods. The re was also anothe r strong reason ,
though at the time people may not have realised it.
The populat ion had started to grow at a greatly
increased rate.
The enclosures, and the farming improvements
from which they resulted, made possible far greater
and more efficient food producti on than could be
found in almost any other country in Europe. The
records of Britai n's largest meat market, Smithfield
in London, show the extraordinary improvement in
animal farming. In 1710 the ave rage weight of an
ox was 168 kg, by 1795 it was 364 kg. During the
same period the ave rage weight of a sheep in
Smithfield rose from 17 kg to 36 kg.
Improved use of land made it possible to grow
wheat almost everywhere. For th e first time
everyone, incl uding the poor , cou ld eat white
wheat bread. White bread was less healthy tha n
brown, but the poor en joyed the idea tha t they
cou ld afford the same bread as the rich . In spite of
the greatly increased product ion of food , however,
Brita in could no longer feed itself by th e end of th e
century. Imported food from abroad became
necessary to feed the rapidly growing populat ion.
But in social terms the enclosures were damaging.
Villagers sometimes knew nothing about an
. enclos ure unti l they were sent off the land. Some
had built their homes on common land and th ese
were destroyed. Over one thousand patl iamentary
Acts resul ted in the enclosure of about four million
acres in the second half of the century. Man y of the
poor thought this was no better th an stea ling:
They hang the man and fl og the woman,
That stea ls the goose from off the common,
But leave the greater crimina l loose
T hat stea ls the common from the goose .
The enclosures changed the look of much of the
countryside. Instead of a few large fields th ere were
now many smaller fields, each enc ircled wit h a
hedge, many wit h trees growing in them.
The problem of the growing landless class was made
very much worse by the rapid increase in
118
population in th e second half of the century. Some
were able to work with the new farming cl ass.
Others were not able to find work . Many of these
had to depend on the hel p of the Poor Laws, first
introduced by Queen Elizabeth I.
Anothe r problem was that there were several years
of bad har vests whic h resulted in a sharp increase in
wheat prices. Local magistrates could have fixed
wages to make sure the poor could afford to eat. But
in many places, they chose inst ead to help those
whose wages were part icul arl y low out of the local
rat es. The most famous exa mple was in a village
called Speenha mland, and the "Speenhamland
Act" was cop ied in many part s of the country. It
was a disastrous system, because employers were
now able to employ peop le cheaply knowing that
the parish would have to add to the low wages they
paid. Some employers eve n lowered th eir wages
after the Speenharnland Act. It is not surpr ising
th at as a result the nat ional cost of helping the poor
rose from £2 million in 1790 to £4 mi llion in 1800.
Another effect of the Speenhamland Act was to
increase the growth of the population. Help was
given to a family according to th e numbe r of
children. Before the enclosures farmers had smaller
families because the land had to be di vided among
the children, and because young men would not
marry until th ey had a farm of their own. The
enclosures removed the need for these limi ts, and
the Speenhamland Act encouraged larger famili es
since this mean t an increase in financial help.
Neig hbouring parishes join ed together to build a
"parish workhouse" where most of the poor were
fed and housed. Some pari shes hi red the workhouse
and its population to a local businessman who
wanted cheap workers. He prov ided food in return
for work. This qui ckly led to a syste m littl e betrer
th an slavery, with children as well as adults being
made to work long hours. These effects brought
abou t the collapse of the old Poor Law and led to a
new law in 1834.
Other peop le left their village and went to the
towns to find work . They provided the energy that
made possible an even greater revolu tion which was
to cha nge the face of Brita in.
Family life
In the eighteenth century fami lies began to express
affect ion mor e openly than before . In addit ion it
seems that for the first t ime children were no longer
thought of as small adults, but as a distinct group of
people wit h spec ial needs. A century after the
Quaker, Penn, there was a growing voice advising
gentleness with children. One popular eighteenth-
cent ury handbook on th e upbringing of children,
itself a significant development , warned: "Severe
and frequent whipping is, I think , a very bad
pract ice." In I 798 anot he r handbook told mothers
that "The first object in the education of a child
should be to acquire its affect ion, and the second to
obtain its confi dence. The most likel y thing to
expand a yout hful mind is .. . pra ise."
Girls, however, conti nued to be vict ims of the
parents' desire to make them match the pop ular
idea of femin ine beaut y of slim bodies, tight waists
and a pale appearance. To achieve th is aim, and so
improve the chances of a good marriage, parents
forced th eir daughters into tightl y waisted clothes,
and gave th em on ly littl e food to avo id an
17 Life in town and co untry
unfash ionablv heal th y appearance. Undoubtedly
thi s behaviour explains the idea and reality of frail
feminine hea lt h which continued into the
nineteenth century.
Parents st ill often dec ided on a suita ble marriage for
their children, but they increasingl y sought th eir
ch ildren's opinion. However.rsons and daughters
often had to marry against their wishes. One man ,
forced to give up the only woman he ever loved,
wrote, "I sighed as a lover , but I obeyed as a son. "
But love and companionship were slowly becoming
accepted reasons for marriage. As one husband
wrot e to his wife after fi fteen years of marri age, " I
have onl y time to say that I love you dearly, - best
of women, best of wives, and best of friends." If
such feel ings descr ibed a sixteenth- or seventeenth-
century marriage they were less ope nly stated, and
perhaps less ope nly expected.
The increase in affection was partly because peop le
could now expec t a reasonabl y long life. This
resulted mainl y from improved diet and the greater
cleanliness of cott on rather tha n woollen
undercl othing. However , it was also the result of a
Hogarthis beS! knownfarhis
realistic pictures of scceo's ills,
bw to make moneyhe also
paintedwealchy people. "The
GrahamChildren" gives a
delighrful liew ofa wann relaxed
andjoUy atmosphere. Play began
to be recognisedas good far
children, but only faryoung
ones. 11 was feared that ifolder
childrenplayed they would
become la" aduh One lmd
wrote to his sonon his ninth
birthday, "Childish lO)'s and
playthings musr be thrown aside,
andyour mind directed to serious
objec!s. "
119
An Illustrated History of Britain
growing idea of kindness. For perhaps the first time
peopl e started to beli eve th at cr uelty either to
humans or animals was wrong. It did not prevent
bad factory condit ions, but it did help those trying
to end slavery. At the root of this dislike of cruelty
was the idea that every human was an indi vidual.
This growing individualism showed itself in a desire
for pr ivacy. In the seventeenth century middle -class
and weal thi er families were served by servants, who
listened to their conversat ion as they ate. They
lived in rooms that led one to another, usually
through wide double doors. Not even the bedrooms
were private. But in the eighteenth century families
began to eat alone , preferring to serve themsel ves
th an to have servants listening to everyth ing they
had to say. They also rebuilt the insides of their
homes, putting in corridors, so that every person in
the family had their own privat e bedroom.
Britain was ahead of t he rest of Europe in thi s
individualism. Almost certainly thi s was the result
of the polit ical as well as economic strength of the
middl e class, and the way in which the middl e class
mixed so easily with th e gentry and aristocracy.
Individualism was important to trade and industri al
success.
The most successful in trade and industry were
often Nonconformists, who were especially
hardworking. They could be hard on their famili es,
as Puri tan fathe rs had been a century earlier. But
they were also ambitious for their sons, sending
th em away to boarding schoo l at a young age.
Removed from famil y affect ion, thi s kind of
educat ion increased individualism. Starved of
emot ional life, many of these boys grew up to put
all their energy into power, either helping to build
the empi re, or hel ping to build trade and industry.
Such indi vidualism could not exist for the poorer
classes. Where women and children could find work
making cloth, a wor ker famil y might doubl e its
income, and do quite well. But a poor famil y in
which only th e father could find work lived on the
edge of starvation.
The Speenha mland Act was not practi sed
everywhere. An increasing number offamilies had
120
no choice but to go to the parish workhouse. Some
babi es were even killed or left to die by desperate
mothers. A poor woman expecting a baby was often
sent out of th e parish, so that feeding th e mother
and child became th e responsibility of another
parish workhouse.
The use of child labour in the workhouse and in the
new factories increased towards th e end of the
century. This was hardly surprising. A rapidly
growing population made a world of children.
Children of the poor had always worked as soon as
th ey could walk. Workhouse children were
expec ted to learn a simple task from the age of
three, and almost all would be working by th e age
of six or seven. They were part icularly useful to
factory owne rs because th ey were easy to discipline,
unlike adults, and they were cheap.
Then, quite suddenly at the end of the century,
child labour began to be seen as shameful. This
resulted partl y from the growing dislike of cruelty,
and also from the fact that hard child labour
became more visible and more systematic now that
so many people worked in factor ies rathe r tha n in
fields and cott ages. A first blow had been struck
some years earlier. Horrified by the suffering of
children forced to sweep chimneys, two men
campaigned for almost thirty years to persuade
Parli ament to pass a Regulating Act in 1788 to
reduc e the cruel ty invol ved. In the nin eteenth
cent ury the condit ion of poor ch ildren was to
become a main area of social reform. This was a
response not only to the fact that children were
suffering more, but also tha t their sufferings were
more publi c.
18 The years of revolution
Industrial revolution ' Society and religion ' Revolution in France and
the Napoleonic Wars
Industrial revolution
Several influences came together at the same time
to revolutionise Britain's industry: money, labour, a
greater demand for goods, new power, and better
transport.
By the end of the eighteenth century, some families
had made huge private fort unes. Growing merchant
banks helped put thi s money to use.
Increased food prod uction made it possible to feed
large populations in the new towns. These
populations were made up of the people who had
lost th eir land through enclosures and were looking
for work. They now needed to buy things they had
never needed before. In the old days people in the
villages had grown their own food, made many of
their own clothes and generally managed without
having to buy very much . As landless workers these
people had to buy food, clot hi ng and everything
else th ey needed. This created an opport unity to
make and sell more goods than ever before. The
same landless peopl e who needed these things also
became the workers who made them.
By the early eighteenth century simple machines
had already been invented for basic jobs. They
could make large quantities of simple goods quickly
and cheaply so that "mass producti on" became
possible for the fi rst t ime. Each machi ne carried out
one simple process, which introduced the idea of
"division of labour " among workers. This was to
become an imporrant part of the industri al
revolut ion.
By the I 740s the main problem holding back
industri al growth was fuel. There was less wood,
and in any case wood could not produce the heat
necessary to make iron and steel either in large
quantities or of high quality. But at thi s time the
use of coal for changing iron ore into good quality
iron or steel was perfected, and this made Britain
the leading iron producer in Europe. This happened
only just in time for the many wars in which Britain
was to fi ght, mainly against France, for the rest of
the century. The demand for coal grew very
quickly. In 1800 Britain was producing four t imes as
much coal as it had don e in 1700, and eight times
as much iron .
Increased iron product ion made it possible to
manufacture new machinery for othe r industries.
No one saw this more clearly than John Wilkinson,
a man with a tot al belief in iron . He built the
largest ironworks in the country. He built the
world' s first iron bridge, over the River Severn, in
1779. He saw the fi rst iron boats made . He built an
iron cha pel for the new Methodist religious sect ,
and was himself buried in an iron coffin. Wilkinson
was also quick to see the value of new inventions.
Whe n [ arnes Watt made a great ly improved steam
engine in 1769, Wilkinson improved it furt he r by
making part s of the engine more accurately with his
special ski lls in ironworking, In thi s way the skills
of one craft helped the ski lls of ano ther. Unt il then
steam engi nes had only been used for pumping,
usually in coal mines. But in 1781 Watt produced
an engine with a turning moti on, made of iron and
steel. It was a vit al devel opment because people
were now no longe r depe ndent on natural power.
121
An Illustrated History of Brit ain
An early coal mine in theMidlands. The useof coal faralmmt allenergy ledto a huge amount of
smoke which blackened buildings andcreated dark' 'smogs". mixtures of smoke andfog, in winter.
Spinners at work. People looked
backat theage of cottage industry
asa happy time compared withthe
bleak discipline of flUtory
employment. Theviewwas,
perhaps, over-idealised. Conditions
were dark andless pleasant than
this picluresuggests. Frequentlyit
was only women's spinning that
kept a familyfrom start/ation. 811. 1
at leas t families warkedwge fher as
an economic unit. All thiswas
broken up by thenewmachinery.
Button makingwas one of thefew
cottage industries to survit/e beyond
/850.
122
One inventi on led to ano ther. and increased
product ion in one area led to increased produc tion
in othe rs. Other basic materi als of th e industr ial
revolut ion were cott on and woollen clot h. which
were popu lar abroad. In the middle of the century
other countries were buying British uni for ms.
equipment and weapons for their armies. To meet
this increased demand. better methods of
production had to be found. and new mach inery
was inve nted wh ich replaced handwork. The
product ion of cotton goods had been limited by the
spinning process. which could not provide enough
cotton thr ead for the weavers. In 1764 a spinning
machine was invented which could do the work of
several hand spinne rs. and other improved
machines were made shortly after. With the far
greater produc tion of cotton thread. the slowest
part of the cotton clothrnaking industry became
weaving. In 1785 a power machine for weaving
revolut ionised clot hmaking. It allowed Britain to
make cloth more cheaply than elsewhere. and
Lancashire cotton cloths were sold in ever y
continent . But this machi nery put many people out
ofwork. It also cha nged wha t had been a "cottage
industry" done at home int o a factory industry.
where workers had to keep work hours and rules set
down by factory owners.
In the Midl ands. factories using locall y found clay
began to develop very quickl y. and produced fine
quality plat es. cups and other china goods. These
soon replaced the old meta l plates and drinking
cups that had been used. Soon large quant ities of
china were being exported. The most famous
factory was one started by Josiah Wedgwood. His
high quality bone china became very popul ar. as it
still is.
The cost of such goods was made cheaper tha n ever
by improved t ransport during the eighteenth
century. New waterways were dug between towns,
and transport by these canals was cheaper than
transport by land. Roads. still used mainly by
people rather than by goods, were also improved
during the century. York. Manchester and Exeter
were three days' travel from London in the 1720s.
but by the 1780s they could be reached in little
over twenty -four hours. Along these main roads.
18 The years of revolution
the coac hes stopped for fresh ho rses in order to
keep up their speed. They became known as "stage"
coac hes. a name that became famous in th e "Wild
West" of America. It was rapid road trave l and
cheap transport by canal that made possible the
economic success of the industri al revolution.
Soon Britain was not only export ing cloth to
Europe . It was also importing raw cotton from its
colonies and exporti ng finished cot ton cloth to sell
to those same co lonies.
The social effects of th e industri al revolution were
enormous. Workers tried to join togethe r to protect
themselves against powerful employers. They
wanted fair wages and reason able condi t ions in
which to work . But the government qui ckl y banned
these "combi nat ions"I as the workers' societies were
known. Riots occurred. led by the une mployed who
had been replaced in factories by machines. In 1799
some of these riot ers. known as Luddit es, started to
break up the machinery which had put the m out of
work. The government supported the factory
owne rs. and made the breaki ng of machi nery
pun ishable by death. The government was afraid of
a revolution like the one in France.
Society and religion
Britain avo ided revolution partl y because of a new
religious movement. This did not come from the
Church of England. which was slow to recogni se
change. Many new industri al towns in fact had no
church or priests or any kind of organised reli gion.
The Church of England did not recognise the
probl ems of these towns. and many priests belonged
to the gentry and sha red the opinions of the
government and ruling class.
The new movement which met the needs of the
growing industrial working class was led by a
remarkable man caIled John We sley. He was an
Anglican priest who traveIled around the country
preachi ng and teac hing. In 1738 Wesley had had a
mystical experience. " I fel t my heart strangely
warmed." he wrote afterwards. "I felt thar 1 did
123
An Illustrated History of Britain
A Methodist meeting in 1777. The habit of preaching in rhe openair drew poorer
people who usually did not go to church. The Methodist prea.:hers uenr et!eT)'where,
riding fTom village to village wilhlheir good news thal Christ had diedfor f'wryone.
They even visitedpriSOTU, oflen to comfon Ihose condemned to hang.
trust in Christ , Christ alone for my salvat ion; and
an assurance was given that he had taken my sins,
even mine, and saved me from sin and death." For
fifty-three years John Wes ley travelled 224,000
miles on horseback, preaching at every village he
came to. Sometimes he preac hed in three different
villages in one day. Very soon ot he rs joined in his
work. John Wes ley visited the new villages and
industria l towns whi ch had no par ish church.
John Wesley's "Merhodism" was above all a
persona l and emot ional form of reli gion. It was
organ ised in small groups, or "chapels", all over the
country. At a time when the Churc h of England
itself showed little interest in the social and
124
spiritual needs of the growing popul ation ,
Met hod ism was able to give ordinary people a sense
of purpose and digni ty. The Churc h was ne rvousof
this powerful new movement which it could not
control. and in the end Wes ley was forced to leave
the Church of England and start a new Method ist
Churc h.
By th e end of the cent ury there were ove r 360
Met hodist chapels, most of them in industrial areas.
These chapels were more democrat ic th an the
Church of England, partly beca use th e members of
each chapel had ro fi nd the money to pay for them.
The Anglican Church, on the ot her hand, had a
good income from the land it owned.
John Wesley was no friend of the ruling classes but
he was deeply conser vative, and had no time for
radicalism. He disapproved of Wilkes and thought
the French Revo lut ion was the work of the deviI.
"The greate r the sha re the people have in
government," he wrote, lithe less liberty, civil or
religious, does a nat ion enjoy. " He carefully
avoided politics, and taught people to be
hardworking and honest . As a result of his
teaching, people accepted many of the injustices of
the times without complaint. Some became wealthy
through working hard and saving their money. As
an old man , Wesley sadly noted how hard work led
to wealth, and wealth to pride and that thi s
threatened to destroy his work . "Although the form
of religion remains," he wrote, lithe spirit is swiftly
vanishing away." However, Wesley probably saved
Br itain from revoluti on . He certainly brought many
people back to Christ ianity.
The Methodists were not alone. Other Christians
also joined what became known as "t he evangelical
revival", whi ch was a return to a simple faith based
on the Bible. It was almost a reawakening of
Puritanism, but this time with a social rather than a
polit ical invo lvement. Some, especia lly the
Quakers, beca me well known for social conce rn.
One of th e best known was Elizabeth Fry, who
made public the terr ible conditions in the prisons,
and started to work for refor m.
It was also a small group of Christ ians who were the
first to act against the evils of the slave trade , from
which Britain was making huge sums of money.
Slaves did not expect to live long. Almost 20 per
cent died on the voyage. Most of the others died
young from cruel treat ment in the West Indies. For
example, berween 1712 and 1768200,000 slaves
were sent to work in Barbados, but during thi s
period the popu latio n of Barbados only increased by
26,000.
The first success against slavery came when a judge
ruled that "no man could be a slave in Britain",
and freed a slave who had landed in Bristol. This
victory gave a new and unexpect ed meaning to th e
words of the na tional song, "Britons never shall be
slaves. " In fact, just as Brita in had take n a lead in
18 The years of revolution
slavery and the slave trade, it also took the lead
int ernationall y in ending them. The slave trade was
abolished by law in 1807. But it took until 1833 for
slavery itself to be abolished in all Brit ish colonies.
Others, also mainly Christ ians, tried to limit the
cruelty of employers who forced children to work
long hours. In 1802, as a result of their efforts,
Parliament passed the first Factory Act , limiting
child labour to twelve hours each day. In 1819 a
new law forbade the employment of children under
the age of nine. Ne ither of these two Acts were
obeyed everywhe re, but they were th e early
examples of government act ion to protect the weak
against the powerful.
The influence of these eighteenth-century religious
movements continued. A century later, when
workers started to organise the mselves more
effectively, many of those involved had been
brought up in Methodist or other Nonconformist
sects. This had a great influence on trade uni onism
and the labour movement in Britain .
Revolution in France and the
Napoleonic Wars
France' s neighbours only slowly realised that its
revolution in 1789 could be dangerous for th em.
Mi litary power and the aut hority of kingship were
almost useless against revol ut ionary ideas.
In France the revolut ion had been made by the
"bourgeoisie", or middle class, leading the peasants
and urban working classes. In England the
bourgeoisie and the gentry had acted toget her for
centuries in the House of Commons, and had
become the most powerful class in Britain in the
seventeenth century. They had no sympathy with
the French revolut iona ries, and were frightened by
the danger of "awakening" the working classes.
They saw the danger of revol ut ion in the British
countryside, where the enclosures were happening,
and in the towns, to which many of the landless
were going in search of work. They also saw the
political dangers whic h could devel op from the
great increase in population .
125
An Hlusrrarcd Histor y of Britain
"Breaking Ihd j ne" aI the banle of Trafalgar, 1805. The traditioTltll iacuc
was re exchange "broadsides" of gunfire between opposingships. Nelson
took his ships in two lines across (from right to left >, rather thanalonRside,
theenemy farrnalion (French fleet sailing from back left to front right of
pic ture) . His ships' guns were able ro fire down thelength of each French
shiP as il passed. This hadtwo advantages. The bows and stem of a wmship
were the leas! defended parts, so the English ships suffered muchless in the
exchangeof gunfire. Secondly, thegunshot travelled thewhole length of the
enemy decks, calLSing greal damaRe to theshiP and lossof life.
126
r ..,"
/'rJlJS(l1(pr
' I I " I ~ " •
f revolution 18 The years 0
" haws WiIIul.m { the nme s
A cartoon 0 Bonaparle can,mg
Piu and Napoleon le n has sliced off
up the world. Na{;;, ~ takenthe
ITWSt of EUTOf "Uke almoSI e\leT)' other
At lantic WhlC. contTOlled by
seaor ocean. was
Bn"rain' s M \I)' .
127
An Illustrated History of Britain
Several radicals sympathised wit h the cause of the
French revoluti onaries, and called for reforms in
Britain. In other countries in Europe such sympathy
was seen as an attack on the aristocracy. But in
England both the gentry and the bourgeoisie fel t
they were being atta cked, and the radicals were
accused of putt ing Britain in danger. Tory crowds
attacked th e homes of radicals in Birmingham and
several ot her cit ies. The Whig Parry was split. Most
feared "[acobinism' ' , as sympathy with th e
revolutionaries was called, and joined William Pitr ,
"the Younger" (t he son of Lord Cha tharn) , whil e
those who wanted reform stayed wit h the radical
Whig leader , Cha rles James Fox. In spite of its
small size, Fox's parry formed the link between the
Whigs of the eighteenth century and the Liberals of
the ninet eenth century.
Not all the radicals sympathised with the
revoluti onaries in France. In many ways Edmund
Burke was a conservat ive, in spite of his support for
the American colonists in 1776. He now quarrelled
with ot her radicals, and wrote Reflections on the
Revolution in France, which became a popular book.
He feared that the established order of kings in
Europe would fall. Tom Paine, who had also
supported the American colonists, wrote in answer
The Rights of Man, in which he defended the rights
of the ordinary people against the power of the
monarchy and the aristocrats. The ideas in th is
book were thought to be so dangerous that Paine
had to escape to France. He never returned to
Britain . But the book itself has remained an
important work on the quest ion of political
freedom.
These marrers were discussed almost entirely by the
middl e class and the gentry. Hardly any working-
class voices were heard, but it should be noted
that the fi rst definitely working-class pol itical
organisa tion. the Correspon ding Soc iety, was
esrablished at this t ime. It did not last long,
because the government closed it down in 1798,
and it only had branches in London, Norwich,
Sheffield, Nott ingha m and one or two other
centres.
128
The French Revoluti on had creared fear all over
Europe. The Brit ish government was so afraid that
revol uti on would spread to Britain that it
imprisoned radical leaders. It was part icularly
frightened tha t the army would be influenced by
these dangerous ideas. Unt il the n, soldiers had
always lived in inns and private homes. Now the
government built army camps, where soldiers could
live separat ed from the ordinary peop le. The
government also brought togethe r yeomen and
gentry who supported rhe ruling establishment and
trai ned the m as soldiers. The government claimed
that these "yeomanry" forces were created in case of
a Frenc h attack. This may have been true, but they
were probably useless against an ene my army, and
they were used to prevent revolution by the poor
and discontented.
As an island , Britain was in less danger, and as a
result was slower than other European states to
make war on the French Republic. But in 1793
Britain went to war after France had invaded the
Low Co untries (today, Belgium and Holland). One
by one th e European countr ies were defeated by
Napoleon, and forced to ally th emselves with him.
Most of Europe fell under Napoleon's control.
Britain decided to fight France at sea because it
had a stronger navy, and because its own survival
depended on control of its trade routes. British
policy was to damage French trade by prevent ing
French ships, including the ir navy, from moving
freely in and out of French seaporrs. The
commander of the British fl eet , Admiral Horat io
Ne lson, won brilliant victories ove r the French
navy, near the coast of Egypt, at Copenhage n, and
finally nea r Spain, at Trafalgar in 1805, whe re he
destroyed the French- Spani sh fleet. Nelson was
himself killed at Trafalgar , but became one of
Britain's greatest nat ional heroes. His words to the
fleet before the battle of Trafalgar, "England
expects th at every man will do his duty, " have
remained a reminder of patr iot ic duty in time of
national danger.
In the same year as Trafalgar, in 1805. a British
army landed in Portugal to fight the French . This
army, with its Portuguese and Spanish allies, was
eventually commanded by We llington, a man who
had fought in Indi a. But fi ght ing the French on
land was an entirely different matter. Almost
everyone in Europe believed the French army. and
its generals. to be the best in the world. We llingt on
was one of the very few gene rals who did not . " I am
not afraid of them." he wrote on his appointment
as commander. "I suspect th at all the Cont ine ntal
armies were more than half beate n before the battl e
was begun. I, at least , will not be frightened
beforehand." Like Ne lson he qui ckly proved to be a
great commander. After several victories against
the French in Spain he invaded France. Napoleon ,
weakened by his disastrous invasion of Russia,
surrendered in 1814. But th e following year he
escaped and quickly assembled an army in France.
Wellington. with the t imely help of the Prussian
army. finall y defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in
Belgium in Jun e 1815.
18 The yearsof revolution
129
130
The nineteenth century
19 The years of power and danger
The danger at home, 181 5- 32' Reform ' Workers revolt· Family life
Britain in the nineteenth century was at its most
powerful and self-confident. After the industr ial
revolu tion , ninereenth-centurv Britain was the
"workshop" of the world. Unt il the last quarter of
the century British facto ries we re producing more
than any ot he r count ry in th e world.
By the end of the century, Britain's empire was
political rath er tha n commercial. Brita in used this
empire to control large areas of the world. The
empire gave the British a feeling of their own
importance which was difficult to forget when
Britain lost its power in the twent ieth century. This
belief of the British in theit own importance was at
its he ight in the middle of the nineteenth century,
among the new middle class, which had grown wit h
industrialisat ion. The novelist Charles Dickens
nicely described thi s national pride. One of his
charact ers, Mr Podsnap, believed that Britain had
been specially chosen by God and "considered
othe r countries a mistake".
The rapid growth of the middle class was part of th e
enormous rise in the population. In 1815 the
population was 13 million, but this had doubled by
1871, and was over 40 mi llion by 1914. This
growth and the movement of people to towns from
the countryside forced a cha nge in the polit ical
balance, and by the end of the century most men
had the right to vote . Politi cs and government
during the nin eteenth century became increasingly
the property of the middl e class. The aristoc racy
and the Crown had little power left by 1914.
William Bdl Scan's "Iron and Coal", painted 1864-67, has a quile new
atmosphere of pride in labourandindustry. Such pride was the mark of
Britain in the ninereenrh cemuT). Onecan feel (he enonnousenergyof
industrial revolution in rhis painting.
However, the working class, the large number of
people who had left their villages to become factory
workers, had not yet found a proper voice.
Britain enjoyed a strong place in European counc ils
after the defeat of Napoleon. Its strength was nor in
a larger populati on, as thi s was half that of France
and Austr ia, and only a littl e greater than that of
Prussia. It lay instead in industry and trade , and the
navy whi ch prote cted rhis trade.
Britain want ed two main things in Europe: a
"balance of power" whic h would prevent ~ n y single
nat ion from becoming too strong, and a free market
in which its own industrial and trade superiority
would give Britain a clear advantage. It succeeded
in the fi rst aim by encouraging the recovery of
France, to balance the power of Austr ia. Furt her
eas t, it was glad that Russia's influence in Europe
was limited by Prussia and the empires of Austri a
and Turkey. These all sha red a border with Russia.
Outside Europe, Britain wished its trading position
to be srronger rhan anyone else's. It defended its
interests by keeping ships of its navy in almost
every ocean of th e world . Th is was possible because
it had taken over and occupied a number of places
during the war against Napoleon. These included
Mauritius (in the Indian Ocean), the Ioni an Islands
(in rhe easrern Mediterranean ), Sierra Leone (west
Africa) , Cape Co lony (south Africa), Ceylon, and
Si ngapore.
After 1815 the British government did not only try
to develop its trading stations, Irs policy now was to
control world traffic and world markets ro Britain's
advantage. Britain did not , however, wish to
colonise everywhere. There were many areas in
131
An Illustrated History of Britain
which it had no interest . But there were ot her
areas, usually cl ose to its own possessions or on
important trade rout es, whi ch it wished everyone
else to leave alone. It was as a result of defending
these interests tha t Britain took ove r more and
more land. Britain's main anx iety in its foreign
policy was tha t Russia would try to expand
southwards, by taking ove r the Slavic part s of
Turkey's Balkan possessions, and might reach the
Mediterrane an. For most of the century, therefore,
Britain did its best to support Turkey against
Russian expansio n. In spite of its power, Britain
also felt increasingly anxious about growing
comper ition from France and Ge rmany in the last
part of the century. Most of the colonies esrablished
in the nineteenth century were more to do with
political control than with trading for profit.
The conce rns in Europe and th e prot ecti on of trade
rout es in the rest of the world guided Britain 's
foreign policy for a hundred years. It was to keep
the balance in Europe in 1838 that Britain
promi sed to protect Belgium against stronger
neighbours. In spite of political and economic
troubles in Europe, thi s policy kept Britain from
war in Europe for a century from 1815. In fact it
was in defence of Belgium in 1914 that Britain
finall y went to war against Ge rmany.
The danger at home, 1815-32
Until about 1850, Britain was in great er danger at
home than abroad. The Napoleonic Wa rs had
turned th e nati on from thoughts of revolution to
rhe need to defeat the French. They had also
hi dden th e social effects of rhe industrial
revol uti on . Britain had sold clothes, guns, and
othe r necessary war supplies to its allies' armies as
well as irs own. At the same time, corn had been
imported to keep th e nari on and irs army fed.
All thi s cha nged whe n peace came in 1815.
Suddenly there was no longer such a need for
factory-made goods, and many lost their jobs.
Unemployment was made worse by 300,000 men
from Britain 's army and navy who were now
looking for work. At the same time, the
landowning farmers' own income had suffered
132
because of chea per imported corn. These farmers
persuaded the government to introduce laws to
protect locall y grown corn and th e price at which it
was sold. The cost of bread rose quic kly, and th is
led to increases in the price of almost everything.
While prices doubled, wages remained the same.
New methods of farming also reduced the number
of workers on th e land.
The gene ral misery began to cause trouble. In 1830,
for example, starving farmworkers in the south of
England rioted for increased wages. People tr ied to
add to th eir food supply by catc hing wild birds and
animals. But almosr all rhe woods had been
enclosed by th e local landlord and new laws were
made to stop people hunt ing animals for food.
Many had to choose bet ween watc hing their family
go hungry and risking the severe pun ishment of
those who were caught. A man found with nets in
his home could be transported to the new "penal"
colony in Austra lia for seven years. A man caught
hunting with a gun or a knife might be hanged, and
until 1823 thieves caught entering houses and
stealing were also hanged. These laws showed how
much the rich feared the poor, and alrhough they
were slowly softened, the fear remained.
There were good reasons for this fear. A new poor
law in 1834 was intended to improve the help given
to the needy. But central government did not
provide the necessa ry money and many people
receive d even less hel p than before. Now , on ly
those who actually lived in the workhouse were
given any help at all. The workhouses were feared
and hat ed. They were crowded and dirty, wit h
barely enough food to keep people al ive. The
inha bitants had to work from early morning till late
at night. The sexes were separated, so families were
divided. Charles Dickens wrote about the
workhouse in hi s novels. His descriptions of the life
of crime and misery into whic h poor people were
forced shocked the riche r classes, and condit ions
slowly improved.
In order to avoid the workho use, many looked for a
better life in the towns. Between 1815 and 1835
Brita in changed from being a nat ion of country
people to a nation mainly of townspeople. In the
first thirty years of the ninet eenth century, cit ies
19 The years of power and danger
Above; Sheffield was link more rrum a large villagein rhe early eighreenth
cenno-y. By 1858 it was one of the fastesl growing towns of the industrial
rct'Vl wi(Jn. with hundreds of facrory chimneys crearing a newskyline.
Below; Engltmd's populalion distriburion. Even by 1801, ,hedrif' CO ,he
wums in rhe Midlands and nor,hwest of England Will considerable, and ,his
JIIot/emell! increased during the firs' halfof the nineteench century.
FIDISTRIBUTION OF POPULA TlON I
, - - - - - - ~ @ ® ®
Dover 12 per square
mile
EJ 8-11 per square
mil e
D l ess than 8 per
square mile
over 150 per
square mile
~ 1OQ.150per
square mile
o less than 100 per
square mile
l
over 200 per
square mile
[] 150·200 per
square mile
D less than 150 per
square mile
, - - - ~ ~ a ' a '
~ over 40 per square
mile
~ 30·40 per square
mi le
D less than 30 per
square mite
I3J
An Illustrated History of Britain
like Birmingham and Sheffield doubled in size,
while Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds more than
doubled. Se veral towns close together grew into
huge ci ties wit h no countryside left in be twee n .
The main city areas were northwest England, where
the new carron industry was based, the north
Midlands, the area around Glasgow, and south
Wales. But although these cit ies grew fast, London
remained th e largest. In 1820 London was home for
1. 25 mi llion, out of a total Brit ish popul ati on of
about IS milli on .
If the rich feared the poor in the countryside, they
feared eve n more those in the fast-growing towns.
These were harde r to cont rol. If they had been
organi sed, a revol ution like that in France might
have happened. But they were not organised, and
had no leaders. Only a few radical polit icians spoke
for the poor , but th ey failed to work in close co-
operation with the workers who could have
supported them.
Several riots did, however , take place, and the
government reacted nervously. In 1819, for
exampl e, a large crowd of workin g people and their
families gathered in Manchester to prot est against
their conditions and to listen to a radical speech in
favour of change. Suddenly they were attacked by
soldiers on horses. Eleven people were killed and
more than one hundred wounded. The struggle
between the government, frightened of revoluti on ,
and those who wanted cha nge became greater.
Reform
The Whigs understood bette r th an the Tories the
need to reform the law in order to improve social
condit ions. Like the Tor ies they feared revolution,
but unlike the Tor ies they believed it could only be
avoided by reform. Indeed, the idea of reform to
make the parli amentary system fairer had begun in
the eighteent h century. It had been started by early
radicals, and encouraged by the American War of
Independence, and by th e French Revoluti on.
The Tori es bel ieved th at Parli ament should
represent "property" and the property owners, an
idea that is still associated by some with today's
134
Tory Part y. The radicals believed that Parl iament
should represent the people. The Whigs, or Liberals
as they later became known, were in the middle,
wanting enough change to avoid revolution but
littl e more .
The Tories hoped that the House of Lords would
prote ct the interests of the property owners. When
the Commons agreed on reform in 1830 it was
turned down by the House of Lords. But the Tories
fell from power the same year, and Lord Grey
formed a Whig government. Grey himself had
supported th e call for reform as a radical in 1792. In
1832 th e Lords acce pted the Reform Bill, but more
because they were frightened by the riots in the
streets outside than because they now accepted the
idea of reform. They feared that the collapse of
political and civil order might lead to revolution.
At fi rst sight the Reform Bill itself seemed almost a
polit ical revolut ion. Sco tland's vot ers increased
from 5,000 to 65,000. Fort y-one English towns,
inclu ding the large cit ies of Manchester,
Birmingham and Bradford, were represented in
Parl iament for the very fi rst t ime. But there were
limits to the progress made. The total number of
vot ers increased by only 50 per cent. The 349
elector s of th e small town of Buckingham still had
as many MPs to represent them as the 4, 192
electo rs of the city of Leeds. And England, with
unly 54 per cent of the Brit ish populati on,
cont inued to have over 70 per cent of MPs as it had
done before. However, in spite of its shortcomings,
the 1832 Reform Bill was a polit ical recognit ion
that Britain had become an urban society.
Workers revolt
Since 1824 workers had been allowed to join
toget her in unions. Most of these unions were small
and weak. Al though one of thei r aims was to make
sure employers paid reason able wages, they also
tried to prevent other people from working in their
parti cular trade. As a result the worki ng classes still
found it diffi cult to act togethe r. Det ermin ed
employers could still quite easily defeat strikers who
refused to work unt il the ir pay was improved, and
often did so with cruelty and violence. Soldiers
The Penny Blackslamp inrroduud
c1u:ap postage in 1840. ensuring
c1u:ap communications far
everyone. The Royal Mail prided
itself on 4ficienl seroice. Over the
)'ears it has remained one of the
best puslal services in theworld.
were somet imes used to force people back to work
or break up meetings.
In 1834. there was an event of great importance in
trade uni on histor y. Six farmworkers in the Dorset
village of Tolpuddle joined together. promi sing to
be loyal to their "union". Their employer managed
tu find a law by which th ey could be punished. A
judge had been specially appo inted by the
government to fi nd th e six men guilty. and thi s he
did. In London 30.000 workers and radicals
gat hered to ask the government to pardon the
"Tolpudd le Mart yrs". The government. afraid of
seeming weak. did not do so until the "martyr s"
had completed part of their puni shment . It was a
bad mistake. Tolpuddle became a symbol of
employers' cruel ty. and of the working classes' need
to defend themselves through trade union strength.
The radicals and workers were greatly helped in
their efforts by the introduct ion of a cheap postage
system in 1840. This enabled the m to organ ise
themsel ves across the country far better than
before. For one penny a letter could be sent to
anyone, anywhere in Britain.
19 The years of power and danger
I
TheChartist rallyon Kennington Common. sOldh London. markedtheend
of fhe mceemenr. It failed to changemuchby constitutionalmeans, and us
leaders feared fhe resulfSof trying to change socery by Imconstitldional
methods. This rally, likeprevious ones, uw altendedmosrIy by men. Very
feu' ",'Omen can beseen,
Working toget her for the fi rst time. unions, workers
and radicals put forward a People' s Charter in 1838.
The Charter demanded rights th at are now
accepted by everyone: the vote for all adults; the
right for a man with out propert y of his own to be
an MP; voting in secret (so that peopl e could not
be forced to vote for thei r landlord or hi s party);
payment for MPs. and an election every year
(which everyone today recogni ses as impractical) .
All of these dema nds were refused by the House of
Commons.
The "Chartists" were not united for long. They
were divided between those ready to use violence
and those who believed in change by lawful means
only. Man y did not like the idea of women also
gett ing the vote. partly because they believed it
would make it harder to obtain voti ng rights for all
men . and thi s demand. which had been included in
the wording to the very fi rst Cha rter. was quietly
forgott en . But riots and political meet ings
cont inued. In 1839 fourteen men were killed by
soldiers in a riot in Newport. Wales. and many
others sent to one of Britain's colonies as prisone rs.
135
An Illustrated History of Britain
Many parts of London and other large cities·were very dangerous,
particularly afterdark. It was fOT this reasonthat thefirst regular police fom
was established by Sir Robert "Bob" Peel, after whomthenew police WCTe
nicknamed"bobbies".
The government's seve re actions showed how much
it feared t hat the poor might tak e powe r, and
establish a repub lic.
T he govern ment was saved par tly by the skill of
Robert Peel , t he Prime Minist er of th e time. Peel
bel ieved that cha nges sho uld be made slowly but
stea dily. He was able to use th e improved econo mic
conditions in t he 1840s to weaken t he Cha rt ist
movement, which slowly died. In 1846 he
abolished th e un popular Corn Law of 181 5, whi ch
had kept t he price of corn hi gher th an necessary.
Not only had thi s made life hard for t hose wit h
litt le money, but it had brought their emp loyers,
the growing class of industrialists, into conflict with
th e landlord class.
T hese ind ust rialists nei th er wished to pay higher
wages, nor employ an underfed workforce. In this
136
way, Peel's decision to repeal the Corn Law was a
sign of the way power was passing out of the hands
of the eighteenth-ce ntury gentry cla ss. These had
kept t he ir powe r in t he early years of th e
nineteenth century. But now power decisively
passed into th e hand s of th e growing number of
industri ali st s and traders.
Besides hunger, crime was th e mark of poverty.
Pee l had turned hi s attent ion to th is pro blem
already, by establishi ng a regul ar po lice for ce for
Lond on in 1829. At first peopl e had laughed at his
blue-uniformed men in th eir top hat s. But dur ing
t he next t hirt y years almost every ot he r town and
county start ed its own poli ce for ce. The new police
forces soon pro ved th emsel ves successful, as much
crime was pushed out of th e larger cities, th en out
of towns and th en out of t he countryside. Peel was
able to sho w th at cert aint y of punishmen t was far
more effecrive t ha n cruelty of punishment.
Britain's success in avoiding the storm of revolution
in Europe in 1848 was admired almost everywhere.
Europ ean monarchs wished t hey were as safe on
their t hrones as the Briti sh queen seemed to be.
And liberals and revolut ionar ies wished th ey could
ac t as freely as radi cals in Britain were able to do.
Britain had bee n a politi cal model in the eigh-
teenth century, but wit h t he War of Ind ependence
in Ameri ca and revolut ion in France interest in
liberali sm and democracy turned to t hese two
countries. Now it moved back to Britain, as a
model bot h of industr ial success and of free
cons tit ut ional government . For much of t he nine-
teenth cen tury Brita in was th e envy of the wor ld.
Family life
In spite of t he greater emphasis on t he individual
and th e growth of openly shown affect ion , th e end
of t he eighteent h century also saw a swing back to
str icter ideas of family life. In part , th e close family
resulted from t he growt h of new att it udes to
privacy, perhaps a necessary part of individualism.
It was also th e result of th e removal, over a per iod
beginni ng in the sixteenth century, of the social
and economic suppor t of t he wide r family and
village community, which had made family life so
"Dinner Hour at Wigan" by
Eyre Crcee ( 1844- 1910) gites
a fine bw romantic t'ieu' of life in
oneof Britain's industrial roccns.
Factory women cannot often
have looked soclean Qf healthy.
Some wearuocdern soled clogs on
dlerr feet, others arebarefoot. It
is a picture fuU of intereSl, and
perhaps die mosr important point
of die picture is the comtxJnion·
shipof women. Women's closest
friendships were probably more
often made u.ithoUter women
than with their husbands. In the
middlegrotmd stands a
policeman, a reminder of
awhority andthat authority was
mnk.
19 The years of power and danger
much more publi c. Except for the very rich . people
no longer married for economic reasons. but did so
for personal happiness. However. while wives might
be companions. they were certainly not equal s. As
someone wrote in 1800. "the husband and wife are
one. and the husband is that one". As the idea of
the close family under the "master" of the
household became stronger. so the possibility for a
wife to find emot ional support or practi cal advice
outside the immediate famil y became more limit ed.
In addit ion. as the idea of the close family slowly
spread down the social order. an increasing number
of women found their sole economic and social
usefulne ss ended when the ir children grew up. a
problem that cont inued into the twentieth cent ury.
They were discouraged from going out to work if
not economically necessary. and also encour aged to
make use of the growing number of peopl e available
for domestic service.
Thi s return to authority exercised by the head of
the family was largely th e result of three things.
These were fear of politi cal revolution spreading
from France. of social cha nge caused by industri al
revolution in Britain. and the influence of the new
religious movements of Methodism and
Evangeli calism.
One must wonder how much these things reduced
th e chance of happy famil y life. Indi vidualism.
strict parental behaviour. the regular beating of
children (whi ch was still widespread). and the cruel
condit ions for those boys at boarding schoo l. all
worked against it. One should not be surprised that
family life often ended when children grew up. As
one foreigner noted in 1828. "grown up children
and thei r parents soon become almost strangers". It
is impossible to be sure what effect this kind of
family life had on children. But no doubt it made
young men unfeeling towards their own wives who.
wit h unmarried sisters. were the responsibili ty of
the man of the house. A wife was legall y a man's
property. unti l nea rly the end of the cent ury.
In spite of a stricter moral at mosphere in Scotland
which resulted from the strong influence of the
Kirk. Scottish women seem to have cont inued a
stronger trad ition of independent att itudes and
plain speaking. In 1830 a Scotswoman called for
"the perfect equa lity of her sex to tha t of man".
Another in 1838 wrote. "It is the right of every
woman to have a vote . . . in her county, and more
so now that we have got a woman [Queen Vicroria]
at the head of government." She had a long time to
wait.
137
20 The years of self.. confidence
The railway · The rise of the middle classes· The growth of towns and
cities· Population and politics· Queen and monarchy· Queen and
empire· Wales, Scotland and Ireland
In 1851 Queen Victoria opened th e Great
Exhibi tion of th e Industri es of All Nati ons inside
the Crystal Palace, in London. The exhibit ion
aimed to show the wor ld the greatness of Britain' s
industry. No other nati on could produce as much at
that time. At the end of the eighteenth century,
France had produced more iron th an Britain . By
1850 Britain was producing more iron than the rest
of the world toget her.
Britain had become powerful because it had enough
coal, iron and stee l for its own enormo us industry!
and could even export them in large quantities to
Europe. With these materi als it could produc e new
heavy industri al goods like iron ships and steam
engines. It could also make machinery which
produced traditional goods like woollen and cotton
cloth in the factor ies of Lancashire. Britain's cloth
was cheap and was exported to Indi a, to other
colon ies and throughout th e Middl e East , where it
qui ckly destroyed the local cloth industry, causing
great misery. Britain made and owned more than
half the world's total shipping. This great industri al
empire was supported by a strong banking system
developed during the eighteenth cent ury.
The railway
The greatest example of Britain 's industrial power
in the mid-nineteenth century was its railway
system. Indeed, it was mainl y because of this new
form of transport that six million peopl e were able
to visit th e Great Exhi biti on, 109,000 of them on
one day. Many of th em had never visited London
138
before. As one newspaper wrote, "Ho w few among
the last gene rat ion ever st irred beyond their own
villages. How few of the present will die without
visit ing London. " It was impossible for politi cal
reform not to continue once everyone could escape
localism and travel all over the country with such
ease.
In fact industrialists had built th e railways to
transport goods, not people , in order to bring down
the cost of transport. By 18402,400 miles of track
had been laid, connec ting not only the industrial
towns of the north, but also London, Birmingham
and even an economically unimportant town like
Brighton. By 1870 the railway system of Britain was
almost complete. The canals were soon empty as
everything went by rail. The speed of the railway
even made possible the deli very of fresh fi sh and
raspberries from Scotland to London in one night .
In 1851 the government made the railway
companies provide passenger trains whi ch stopped
at all stat ions for a fare of one penny per mile. Now
peopl e could move about much more qui ckly and
easily.
The middl e classes soon took adva ntage of the new
opport unity to live in suburbs, from whi ch they
travelled into the city every day by train . The
suburb was a copy of the country village with all the
advantages of the town. Most of the London area
was built very rapidl y between 1850 and 1880 in
response to the eno rmous demand for a home in the
suburbs.
"HomeSueer Home" fry Walter
Sadler shows a prosperOl;s home
inabout 1850. The branches of
Iwll y decoratingthemirror.
rrw.ntelpieceandpicture feUus
that it is Christmas, but it is
before the age of greetings cards.
Silfingeither side of the fireplace
ar/? me grandparenf5, enjoying
!he family scene, Mother plays
!he piano, whi le the father and
childrensing. Theeldesl daughter
has beenreading, possibly aloud
IQgit'eher grandparenf5 pleasure.
B6ide rhe grandmother stands a
roundframe on whichsomeone
has been doing embroidery work.
On the floor is a "Turkey
carpel", probably a British
copy of the more
e.tpensit'e handwoven carpelS from
r",key.
20 The years of self-confidence
Poor peopl e' s lives also benefired by the railway.
Many moved wit h the middl e classes to the
suburbs, into smaller houses. The men trave lled by
train to work in the town . Many of rhe women
became servant s in the houses of the middle classes.
By 1850 16 per cent of the population were "in
service" in private homes, more than were in
farming or in the cloth industry.
The rise of the middle classes
There had been a "middle class" in Britain for
hundreds of years. It was a small class of merchants,
traders and small farmers. In rhe second half of the
eighteenth century it had increased wirh the rise of
industri alists and factory owners.
In the nineteenth century, however, the middle
class grew more quickly than ever before and
included greater differences of wealt h, social
posit ion and kinds of work. It included those who
worked in th e professions, such as the Church, the
law, medicine, rhe civil service, the diplomat ic
service, merchant banking and th e army and the
navy.
lsambard Kingdom Brunei( 1806- 1859) uus a middle-class man who
represenred the height of Britishengineering success andtheleadership of rhe
middleclasses in nationallife. In 1833 heotJersaw theconstruction of rhe
Great Western Railway. In 1838hedesigned lhe firs t steamshitJ10 cross rhe
Aildntic regularly. In 1845 hebuilt lheGreat Britain. the first /iITge shiP to
beIIUtde of iron with a screw propeller.
139
An Illustrated History of Britain
It also included the commercial classes, however,
who were the real creators of wealth in the country.
Industri alists were often "self-made" men who came
from poor beginnings. They beli eved in hard work,
a regular style of life and being careful with money.
This class included both the very successful and
rich industr ialists and the small shopkeepers and
office workers of the growing towns and suburbs.
In spite of the idea of "class", the Victori an age was
a time of great social movement. The children of
the first gene rat ion of factory owners often preferred
commerce and banking to industry. While their
fathers remained Nonconformist and Liberal, some
children became Anglican and Tory. Some went
into the professions. The very successful received
kni ghthoods or became lords and joined the ranks
of the upper classes.
Those of the middl e class who could afford it sent
their sons to feepaying "public" schools. These
schools aimed not only to give boys a good
educat ion, but to train th em in leadersh ip by raking
them away from home and making their living
conditions hard. These public schoo ls provided
many of the officers for the armed forces, the
colonial admini stration and the civil service .
140
"Capiwl andLahour". tI cartoon
from Punch magazine. A
gentleman relaxes comforted in
the knowledge that the sufferings
of thepoor have at least givenhis
family andhimself such luxury.
Below. in thebackground, child
labourers can beseen roiling
along the galleries of a coal mine.
- = ~ ~ - - -
The growth of towns and cities
The escape of the middle classes to the suburbs was
understandable. The ci t ies and towns were
ove rcrowded and unhealth y. One baby in four died
within a year of its birth. In 1832 an outbreak of
cholera, a disease spread by dirty water, killed
31,000 people. Proper drains and wat er supplies
were still limit ed to those who could afford them.
In th e middl e of the century towns began to
appoint health officers and to provide proper drains
and clea n water, which qui ckly reduced the level of
disease , particularly cholera. These health officers
also tried to make sure that new housing was less
crowded. Even so, there were many "slum" areas for
factory workers. where tiny homes were built very
close toget her. The better town councils provided
parks in newly built areas, as well as libraries,
public baths where people could wash, and even
concert halls.
Some towns grew very fast . In the north , for
example, Middl esbrough grew from not hing to an
iron and steel town of 150,000 peopl e in only fi fty
years. Most peopl e did not own th eir homes, but
rent ed the m. The homes of the workers usually had
MrG/adswlIe 5peaking in the
House of Commons, / 882. Each
pari), sat on eith('T side of the
Speaker (seated hack right ) and
the cemral wble. The Speaker's
responsibili ty was to ensure the
arderly conduct of parliamentary
business. Tohelp him, a line .
.dong !he jlom (running unde>-
the feel of oneof G/adstone's
.;olleagues) marksthe boundary
each MPMd!O stay behind on
each side of the House. TIW uw
toamidangry arguments
becoming fights. The two lines
are two sUlOTd1engrhs' distance
apart . The si/,'eT mace on the
wble is a symbol of royal
allthority.
20 The years of self-confidence
only four small rooms, two upstairs and two
downstairs, wit h a small back yard. Most of the
middle classes lived in houses with a small garden
in front, and a larger one at the back.
Population and politics
In 1851, an official popu lation survey was carried
out for the fi rst t ime. It showed th at the nation was
not as religious as its people had believed. Only 60
per cent of the popul ation went to church. The
survey also showed that of rhese only 5. 2 million
called themselves Anglicans, compared with 4. 5
million No nconformists and almost half a million
Catholics. Changes in the law, in 1828 and 1829,
made ir possible, for the first t ime since the
seventeenth century, for Catholics and
Nonconformists to en ter government service and to
enter Parliamen t. In practice, however, it remained
difficult for them to do so. The Tory-Anglican
alliance could hard ly keep rhem our' any longer. Bur
the Nonco nfor mists naturall y supported the
Liberals, rhe more reformisr parry. In fact the
Tories held office for less th an five years between
1846 and 1874.
In 1846, when Sir Roberr Peel had fallen from
power , the shape of British politics was st ill
uncl ear. Peel was a Tory, and many Tor ies felt tha t
his repeal of the Corn Laws tha t year was a betrayal
of Tory beliefs. Peel had already made hi mself very
unpopular by supporr ing the right of Catholics to
enter Parliament in 1829. But Peel was a true
representative of the style of politics at the t ime.
Like other politicians he acted independently, in
spite of his parry membership. One reason for thi s
was the number of crises in Brit ish polit ics for a
whole generat ion after 1815. Those in power found
they often had to avoid dangerous polit ical,
economic or social situations by taking steps they
themsel ves would have preferred not to take. This
was the case with Peel. He did not wish to see
Catholics in Parliament, but he was forced to let
them in. He did not wish to repeal the Corn Laws
because these served the farming int erests of the
Tory landowni ng class, but he had ro accep t that
the power of the manufacruring middle class was
growing greater than that of the landed Tory
gentry.
Peel's actions were also evidence of a growing
acceptance by both Tories and Whigs of the
141
7:1',
An Illustrated History of Britain
Muchof London srilllooks as it
did in the closing years of the
nineleenth century. "SI Pcncnu
Hotel and Stalion from
PenlOnville Road: Sunset" by
JohnO'CannOT (1884) shows SI
Pancras as it was meant W be
seen, a temple lO ViclOrian
values lowering above the
surrounding houses. St Pancra5,
buill by George Gilbert Seen. is
one of Lmu1m's fines t "Gothic
revival" buildings.
economic need for free trade, as well as the need for
soc ial and political reform to allow the middl e class
to grow richer and to expand. This meanr allowing
a freer and more open socie ty, with all the dangers
that might mean, It also meant encouraging a freer
and more open soc iety in th e countries with whi ch
Brit ain hoped to trade. This was "Liberalism", and
the Whigs, who were generally more willing to
advance these ideas, beca me known as Liberals.
Some Tor ies also pursued essent ially "Liberal"
policy. In 1823, for example, the Tory Foreign
Sec retary, Lord Canning, used the navy to prevent
Spain sending troops to her rebell ious colonies in
Sout h America. The British were glad to see th e
liberation movement led by Simon Bolivar succeed.
However. this was partly for an economic reason,
Spain had prevented Brita in's free t rade wit h
Span ish colonies since the days of Drake.
Canning had also been responsible for helping the
Greeks achieve their freedom from the Turkish
empire. He did th is partl y in order to sat isfy
romant ic liberalism in Britain, whi ch supported
Greek freedom mainly as a result of th e influence of
th e great poet of the ti me, Lord Byron , who had
visited Greece. But Can ning also knew that Russia,
like Greece an ort hodox Christ ian country, might
142
use th e exc use of Turkish misrule to take control of
Greece itself. Canning judged cor rectly th at an
independent Greece would be a more effect ive
check to Russian expansion,
From 1846 unt il 1865 the most importa nt political
fi gure was Lord Palmer ston, described by one
histor ian as "the most charac te rist ically mid-
Vict orian statesman of all. " He was a Libera l, but
like Peel he often went against his own party' s ideas
and values. Palmerston was known for liberalism in
his foreign policy. He strongly beli eved that
despotic states discoura ged free trade, and he
openly supported European libera l and
independence movements. In 1859- 60, for
example, Palmerst on successfully support ed th e
Itali an inde penden ce movement against both
Austrian and French interests. Wit hin Britain ,
however , Palmersron was a good dea l less liberal,
and did not wan t to allow further political reform to
ta ke place. Thi s was not totally surprising, since he
had been a Tor y as a young man under Canning
and had joined the Whigs at the t ime of the 1832
Refor m Bill. It was also typical of the confusing
indi vidualism of polit ics tha t the Liberal Lord
Palmersron was invited to join a Tory government
in 1852.
Afte r Palrnersron's deat h in 1865 a much stricter
"two party" system deve loped, demanding greater
loyal ty from its membership. The two parti es. Tory
(or Conservative as it became officially known ) and
Liberal, developed greater party organi sation and
order. There was also a cha nge in the kind of men
who became politi cal leaders. This was a result of
the Reform of 1832, after which a much larger
number of people could vote. These new voters
chose a different kind of MP. men from the
commercial rather tha n the landowning class.
Gladstone, the new Libera l leader . had been a
factory owner. He had also started his polit ical life
as a Tory. Even more surprisingly Benjamin
Disraeli, the new Conservative leader. was of
Jewish origin. In 1860 Jews were for th e first time
given equal rights with ot he r citizens. Disraeli had
led the Tory attack on Peel in 1846. and brought
down his government. At that time Disraeli had
strongly supported the interests of the landed
gentry. Twenty years lat er Disraeli himself changed
the outlook of the Conser vat ive Party, deliberate ly
increasing th e party's support among the middle
class. Since 1881 the Co nservat ive Part y has
genera lly remained the strongest.
Much of what we know today as the modern state
was built in the 1860s and 1870s. Between 1867
and 1884 the number of voters increased from 20
per cent to 60 per cent of men in towns and to 70
per cent in the country, incl uding some of the
working class. One immediat e effect was the rapid
growth in party organi sati on , with branches in
every town, able to organise things locally. In 1872
voting was carried out in secret for the first time,
allowing ordina ry peopl e to vot e freely and without
fear. This, and the growt h of the newspaper
industry, in particular "popular" newspapers for the
new half-educated popu lati on. strengthened the
importance of popu lar opinion. Democracy grew
quickly. A nati onal political pattern appeared.
England, part icularly the south. was more
conservat ive, while Sco tland. Ireland. Wales and
the north of England appeared more radical. This
pattern has gene rally continued since then . The
House of Commons grew in size to over 650
members. and the House of Lords lost th e powerful
20 The years of self-confidence
position it had held in th e eighteent h and early
nineteenth centuries. Now it no longer formed
policy but tried to prevent reform raking place
through the House of Co mmons.
Democracy also grew rapidly outs ide Parliament. In
1844 a "Co-operative Movement" was started by a
few Chart ists and trade unionists. Its purpose was
self-help, through a network of shops which sold
goods at a fair and low price, and which shared all
its profits among its members. It was very
successful, with 150 Co-operati ve stores by 1851 in
the north of England and Scotland. By 1889 it had
over 800.000 members. Co-operat ive self-help was
a powerful way in whic h the working class gained
self-confidence in spite of its weak posit ion.
After 1850 a number of trade unions grew up. based
on part icular kinds of skilled labour. However .
unlike many European worker struggles, the English
trade uni ons sought to achieve their goals through
parl iamentary democracy. In 1868 the first congress
of trade unions met in Manchester, representing
11 8,000 members. The following year the new
Trades Union Congress established a parliamentary
committee with the purpose of achieving worker
representati on in Parliament. This wish to work
within Parliament rather tha n outside it had already
brought trade unionists into close co-o peration with
radicals and reformi st Liberals. Even the
Conservative Part y tried to attract worker support .
However, there were limit s to Conservative and
Liberal co-operat ion. It was one thing to encourage
"friendly" societ ies for the peaceful benefi t of
workers. It was quite anot her to enco urage union
campaigns using strike acti on . During the 1870s
wages were lowered in many factor ies and this led
to more strikes than had been seen in Britain
before. The trade unions' mi xture of worker struggle
and desire to work democrati cally withi n
Parl iament led eventually to the foundation of the
Labour Part y.
During the same period the machinery of modern
government was set up. During the 1850s a regular
civil service was established to carry out the work of
governme nt . and "ci vil servants" were carefully
chosen after taking an examinati on. The system
143
An Illustrated History of Britain
still ex ists today. The army, too, was reorgani sed,
and from 1870 officers were no longer able to buy
rheir co mmissions. The administ ration of t he law
was reorganised. Local gover nment in towns and
counties was reorgani sed to make sure of good
governme nt and proper services for t he peo ple. In
1867 t he first move was made to introdu ce free and
compulsory education for childre n. In fact socia l
improvement and politi cal reform acted on eac h
ot he r througho ut the ce nt ury to cha nge t he face of
th e nation almost beyond recogni t ion.
Queen and monarchy
Quee n Vict or ia ca me to t he throne as a young
woman in 1837 and reigned unti l her death in
190 l. She di d not like t he way in wh ich power
seemed to be slipping so qui ckly away from th e
monarchy and ar istoc racy , but like her adv isers she
was unable to prevent it. Victoria married a
German, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, but he
died at th e age of forty-t wo in 186 I . She co uld not
get over her sorrow at hi s death, and for a long t ime
refused to be seen in public.
This was a dangerous th ing to do. Newspapers
began to critici se her. and some eve n questioned
th e va lue of th e monarch y. Many radi cals act ually
believed th e end of monarch y was bound to happen
as a resul t of democracy. Most had no wish to hur ry
t hi s process, and were happy to let th e monarch y
die natur ally. However , the queen 's advisers
persuaded her to take a more public interest in th e
business of the ki ngdom. She did so, and she soon
became extraordina rily popular. By th e t ime
Victoria di ed the monarch y was better loved among
the British than it had eve r been before.
One importan t step back to popularity was th e
publ icati on in 1868 of th e queen 's book Our life in
the Highlands. The book was t he queen 's own di ar y,
with drawings, of her life with Prince Albert at
Balmor al, her castle in th e Scottish Highl and s. It
deli ghted the publ ic, in part icular the growing
middle class. They had never before known
anyt hi ng of th e pr ivate life of the monarch , and
th ey enjoyed being able to sha re it . She referred to
t he Prince Consort simply as "Alberr", to the
144
Queen Victoria in her year, 1887. Because of lhe growthof
parliamentary government she was less powerful than previous sovereigns .
However, as queen and empress, she ruledover morelands and peoples than
any previous sovereigns. Furthermore, she enfoved the respect and affection
of her Britishsubjects.
Prince of Wales as "Ber ti e" , and to th e Prin cess
Royal as "Vicky". The queen also wrote about her
servants as if they were members of her fami ly.
The increasingly democratic Briti sh respected the
example of famil y life whi ch t he que en had given
t hem, and shared its moral and reli gious values. But
she also tou ched peop le' s hear ts. She succe eded in
showing a newly industrialised nation th at th e
monarchy was a co nnec tion with a glorious history.
In spi te of the efforts of earlier monarchs to stop the
spread of democracy, the monarchy was now, quite
suddenly, out of danger. It was never safer than
when it had lost most of its polit ical power .
"We have come to believe that ir is narur al to have
a virtuous sove reign," wrote one Victorian. Pure
family moralit y was an idea of royalty tha t would
have been of little interest to the subjects of earlier
monarchs.
Queen and empire
Britain's emp ire had first been built on trade and
the need to defend this against rival European
countries. After the loss of the American colonies
in 1783, the idea of creat ing new colonies remained
unpopular until th e 1830s. Instead, Britain watched
the oceans carefully to make sure its trade routes
were safe, and fought wars in order to protect its
"areas of interest" . In 1839 it attacked China and
forced it to allow the profitable British trade in
opium from India to China. The "Opium Wars"
were one of the more shameful events in British
colonial history.
Afrer about 1850 Britain was dri ven more by fear of
growing European compet ition than by commercial
need. This led to the taking of land, the creat ion of
colonies, and to colonial wars that were ext remely
expensive. Fear that Russia would advance
southwards towards India result ed in a disastrous
war in Afghanistan ( 1839 -42), in which one army
was completely destroyed by Afghan forces in the
mountai ns. Soon after, Britain was fight ing a war in
Sindh, a part of modern Pakistan, th en anot her
against Sikhs in the Punjab, in northwest Indi a.
The Russian danger also affected south Europe and
the Middl e East. Britain feared that Russia would
destroy th e weak Ottoman Empire, which
cont rolled Turkey and the Arab countr ies. This
would cha nge the balance of power in Europe, and
be a danger to Britain 's sea and land routes to
India. When Russia and Ottoman Turkey went to
war Britain joined th e Turks against Russia in
Crimea in 1854, in order to stop Russian expansion
into Asiat ic Turkey in the Black Sea area.
It was the fi rst, and last, t ime th at newspapers were
able to report freel y on a British war wit hout army
20 The yearsof self-confidence
cont rol. They told some unwelc ome truths; tor
example, they wrote abour the courage of the
ordi nary soldiers, and the poor quality of their
officers. They also reported the shocking conditions
in army hospitals, and the remarkable work of the
nurse Florence Night ingale.
In Indi a, the unwi se treatment of Indian soldiers in
British pay resulted in revolt in 1857. Known in
Britain as the "Indian Mutiny", thi s revolt quickly
became a national movement against foreign rule,
led by a number of Hindu and Muslim princes.
Many of these had recently lost power and land to
the British rulers. If they had been better organised,
they would have been able to th row the British out
of Indi a. Both British and Indians behaved with
great violence, and the British cruelly punished the
defeated rebels. The friend ship between the British
and the Indi ans never fully recovered. A feeling of
distrust and distance bet ween ruler and ruled grew
into the Indi an independence movement of the
twentieth century.
In Afr ica, Britain's first interest had been the slave
trade on the wesr coast . It then took over the Cape
of Good Hope at rhe southern point , because it
needed a port there to service the sea route to
Indi a.
Britai n' s interest in Africa was increased by reports
sent back by European travellers and explorers. The
most famous of these was David Livingsrone, who
was a Scottish doctor, a Christ ian missionary and
an explorer. In many ways, Livingstone was a "man
of his age". No one could doubt his courage, or his
honesty. His journ eys from the east coast into
"darkest" Africa excited the British. They greatly
admired him. Livingstone discovered areas of Africa
unknown to Europeans, and "opened" these areas
to Christianity, to European ideas and to European
trade.
Christ ianity too easily became a tool for building a
commercial and politica l empire in Africa. The
governments of Europe rushed in to take what they
could, using the excuse of bringing "c ivilisat ion" to
the people. The rush for land became so great that
European count ries agreed by treat y in 1890 to
divide Africa int o "areas of interest ". By th e end of
145
An Illustrated History of Britain
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Our Empire Atlas. 1897, cleaTly ,Show,S Britairi ',S 'smuegic control of much
of the world. Although not markedas such. Egypt and the Sudan wereelse
colonies inpraccce. Theextent of Britain'scolonial possessions doubled
duringthe nineteenth century. Britain's appetite far new possessions roucrds
the end of the century wasa sign of its nervousness concerning the growth of
OIher Europeanworld powers, particularly France andGermany. Allhvugh
Britain became rich partlythrough her colonialpossessions, defending them
t' wnrudlly proved too grear a strain on Britain's economy.
the century, several European countries had taken
over large areas of Africa. Britain succeeded in
taking most .
In South Africa Britain found th at dealing wit h
other European set tlers present ed new problems.
The Dut ch settlers, the Boers, fought two wars
against the Brit ish at the end of the century,
proving again. as the Crimean War had done. the
weakn esses of the British army. The Boers were
defeated only with great difficulty.
The real problems of British imperial ambition,
however. were most obvious in Egypt . Britain.
anxious about the safety of the route to Indi a
146
20 The yearsof self-confidence
through the ne wly dug Suez Canal, bought a large
number of sha res in the Suez Ca nal company .
When Egyptian nati on alists brought down the ruler
in 1882, Britain invaded " to protect international
shipping" . In fact, it acted to protect its imperial
inte rest, its route to India. Britain told the world its
occupation of Egypt was only for a short t ime, but it
did not leave unti l forced to do so in 1954.
Involvement in Egypt led to invasion and takeover
of the Sudan in 1884, a country two-thirds the size
of India. Like ot her powers, Britai n found that
every area conquered created new dangers which in
turn had to be controlled. In all these count ries, in
Britain had to usean il1CTeasingnumberof soldiers to defend its grOU1ng
empire. The banleof lsandhlurana in southAfricain 1879 UJaS a humiliating
defeat . Britain did not expect its soldiers to bedefealed by black African
Zulus.
147
An Illust rated Hi stor y of Brita in
!I ..,'j'" , 1 1 ~ n , I 11 Iu Il' .,. ~ U ( j :',"" of II, .,.1,
Sixty years a queen, Victoria celebrates her Diamorul Jubilee. Immediately
behind herstandshersonandsuccessor, Edward VIr, and his own sonand
successor, George V, stands on his left. Victoria is acclaimed queen and
empress by themanydifferent colonial peoples under herrule.
India, Afric a and elsewhere, Britain found itself
invol ved in a contradict ion between its imperial
ambition and the liberal ideas it wished to advance
elsewhe re. Gladstone 's view that "the foreign policy
of England should always be inspired by a love of
freedom" seemed to have little place in th e
colonies. In the twentieth century this
contradict ion was a majo r reason for the collapse of
the emp ire.
The re was anothe r reason for the interest in
creat ing colonies. From the 1830s there had been
growing concern at the rapidly increasing
148
populati on of Brita in. A number of people called
for the development of colonies for Briti sh sett lers
as an obvious solut ion to the prob lem. As a result,
there was marked increase in settlement in Canada,
Australia and Ne w Zea land from the 1840s
onwards. The settlers arrived to take ove r the land
and to farm it. In all thr ee countries th ere had been
earlier popu lati ons. In Canada most of these were
pushed westwards, and those not killed became part
of the "white" cult ure. In Aust ralia British setrIers
killed most of the aborigina l inhabitan ts, leaving
only a few in the central desert areas. In Ne w
Zealand the Maori inhabitants suffered less than in
eit her Ca nada or Austra lia, alt ho ugh they still lost
most of the land.
The white colonies, unlike the othe rs, were soon
allowed to govern the mselves, and no longer
depended on Britain . They st ill, however , accepted
the British monarch as the ir head of state. The
move towards self-government was the result of
trouble in Canada in 1837. A new governor , Lord
Durham, quickly understood the danger that
Canada might follow the othe r American colonies
into independence. Hi s report established the
principle of self-government, fi rst for the white
colonies, but eventually for all Brit ish possessions.
It prepared the way from empi re to a British
"Commonwealth of Nat ions" in th e twentieth
century,
By the end of the ni nete ent h century Britain
controlled the ocea ns and much of the land areas of
the world. Most Brit ish strongly believed in their
right to an empire, and were will ing to defend it
against the least thr eat. This state of mind became
known as Jingoism, after a famous Music Hall song
of 1878:
We don' t want to fi ght , but , by jingo if we do,
We've got the ships, we' ve got the men, we've
got the money too.
But eve n at thi s moment of greatest power , Britain
had begun to spend more on its empire than it rook
from it. The empire had started to be a heavy load.
It would become impossibly heavy in the twent ieth
century, when the co lonies fi nally began to demand
their freedom.
Wales, Scotland and Ireland
As industrialisation continued, the areas at the
edge of British economic power became weaker.
Areas in Wales, Scotland and Ireland were
part icularly affected.
Wales had fewer proble ms tha n either Scotland or
Ireland . Its popul at ion grew from ha lf a mi llion in
1800 to ove r two mi llion by 1900. partly because
the average expecrati on of life doubled from thirty
to sixty. In sout h Wa les the re were rich coal mines
which quickly became the centre of a rapidly
growing coal and steel industry. In thei r search for
work. a huge number of people. between two-thirds
and three-quarte rs of the total Welsh populati on .
moved int o the southeast corner of the country . By
1870 Wales was main ly an industrial society.
This new working-class community. born in
southeas t Wales. became increasingly interested in
Nonconformist Christ ianity and radicalism. It
created its own cultural life. In many mining
villages brass bands were created, and these quickly
became symbols of working-class unity. Other
people joined the local Nonconformist chapel
choir. and helped to create the We lsh tradit ion of
fi ne chora l singing. Wales was soon a nat ion
divided bet ween the industrialised areas and the
uncha nged areas of old Wales. in the centre and
north.
The parliamentary reforms of the ni ne teenth
century gave Wales a new voice. As soon as they
were allowed to vote. the Wel sh workers got rid of
the Tori es and the landowning fami lies who had
represented them for 300 years.
Scotland was also divided between a new
industrialised area. arou nd Glasgow and Edinb urgh.
and the Highl and and Lowland areas. Around the
two great cities there were coal mines and factories
produci ng stee l and iron , as well as the centre of
the Brit ish shipbuilding industry on the River
Clyde. Like Wales. Sco tland became strongly
Li beral once its workforce gained voting rights.
The clearances in the Highlands conti nued. In the
second half of the century it became more profitable
to replace the sheep with wild deer. which were
20 The yearsof self-confidence
hunted for sport . Many old clan lands were sold to
new landowners who had no previous connecti on
with the Highlands. and who only occasionally
visited their estates. The Highl ands have never
recovered from th e collapse of the clan system.
eithe r socially or economically. It is probable that
the Highland areas would have become depopulated
anyway. as people moved away to find work in the
cities. But the way in which it happened was not
gentle. and left a bitte r memory.
The Irish experience was worse than that of
Scotland. In the ni neteenth century. an increasing
number of Protestant Irish turned to England as a
protection against the Cat holic inhabit ants. To the
Catholics. however. most Irish Protestants were a
reminder that England. a foreign country. was still
as powerful in Ireland as it had been in 1690. The
struggle for Irish freedom from English rule became
a struggle betwee n Catholic and Protestant. The
first great victory for Irish freedom was when
Ca tholics were allowed to become MPs in 1829. In
fact in Ireland thi s decision was accompanied by a
repression of civil and political liberties. Even so.
the fact that a Catholic could enter Parli ament
increased Irish nat ional feeli ng.
But while this feeling was growing. Ireland suffered
the worst disaster in its ent ire history. For three
years. 1845. 1846 and 1847. the potato crop . which
was the main food of the poor . failed. Since the
beginning of the cent ury. the population had risen
quickl y from fi ve to eight million. In these three
years 1.5 million (about 20 per cent ) died from
hunger. At the same time Ireland had enough
wheat to feed the ent ire populati on. but it was
grown for expo rt to England by the mainl y
Protestant landowners. The government in London
failed to realise the seriousness of the problem.
Many Irish people had lirtl e choice but to leave. At
least a million left during these years. but many
more followed during the rest of the century
because of the great poverty in Ireland. Most settled
in the United Stat es. Between 1841 and 1920
almost five mi llion settled there. Some went
eastwards to the towns and cities of Britain. Many
helped to build Britain's railways.
149
A n Ill ustrated History of Britain
Many Sccmsh Highlanders and Irish were dritJen off {heir landin {he
nineteenth cemury. The Irish suffered worSI of all. Afll'T {he k'TTible POlalO
famine of 1845, therewere ocher years of poor hart'est, nowbly in the years
/877-79, but many landlords refused to lvwer rents during {his lime. MallY
families, likethe one shoum in this photograph, were locked out of their
homes a . ~ {hey couldno longer pay rent. Most of themmade {heir way fa lhe
Uni{ed Stares of America, wllCTe Irish Americansstill remember how their
ancestors were lreated.
The Irish popul ati on has still not yet grown to the
same level. Today it is less t han five million (three
milli on in t he Republic of Ireland, 1. 5 milli on in
Nort hern Ireland), only a littl e mor e t ha n half
what it was in 1840. Emigrat ion from Ireland
cont inues.
The Irish who went to the United Sta tes did not
forge t th e old count ry. Nor did the y forgive Britain.
By 1880 man y Irish Americans were rich and
powerful and were able to suppor t t he Irish freedom
movement. They have had an influence on Brit ish
poli cy in Irel and eve r since.
150
Meanwh ile, Cha rles Parnell , a Prot estant Irish MP,
demand ed fuller rights for t he Irish people, in
part icular th e right to self-gove rnment . Whe n most
Irish were able to vote for t he first time in 1885,
eighty-s ix members of Parn ell's Irish part y were
elected to Parl iament. Most Liberals supported
Parne11 , but t he Tories did not and Ireland did not
gain t he righ t to self-gove rnment, or "home rule",
until th irt y years later. But t hen Brita in's war with
Germany delayed it taking place, and by t he time
the war ended Irish nati ona lists had decided they
could only win t he ir freedom by fight ing for it .
21 The end of an age
Social and economic improvements' The importance of sport •
Changes in thinking' The end of "England's summer" • The storm
clouds of war
Social and economic
improvements
Between 1875 and 1914 the condit ion of the poor
in most of Brita in greatly improved as prices fell by
40 per cent and real wages doubled. Life at home
was made more comforta ble. Most homes now had
gas both for heat ing and lighting. As a result of
falling prices and increased wages, poor families
could eat better food, including meat, fresh milk
(brought from the countryside by train) and
veget ables. This greatly improved the old diet of
white bread and beer.
In 1870 and 1891 two Educat ion Acts were passed.
As a result of these, all ch ildren had to go ro school
up to the age of thirteen, where they were taught
reading, writing and arithmet ic. In Scotl and th ere
had been a state educat ion system since the time
of the Reformation. There were four Scort ish
universit ies, three dat ing from the Middle Ages. In
Wales schoo ls had begun to grow rapidl y in the
middle of the cent ury, partly for nationalist reasons.
By the middle of the cent ury Wales had a uni versity
and a smaller university college. England now
started to build "redbrick" universities in the new
industrial cities. The term "redbrick" distinguished
the new uni versities, often brick-built , from the
older , mainl y stone-built uni versities of Oxford and
Cambridge. These new uni versities were unlike
Oxford and Cambridge, and taught more science
and technology to feed Britain's industries.
Nature study in (Ill elemenwry school,
1908. In 1870 if became rhe Ju.ty of
local authorities to establishschools a! the
expense of local rarepaym. They uere
authorised to compel auenJance. During
the next tuenry years schools uere built
and the attendance 0/ most. if nor all,
children achiet'ed at elementary kn{
151
An Illustrated History of Brirain
The face of th e towns had greatly changed in the
middle years of the century. The organised
improvement of workers' homes, of factory
condit ions, public health and education had all
come fast, once the Victorians had developed the
administrat ive and scientific means. Sidnev Webb,
an early socialist, amusingly described the pride of
the new town authori ties, or municipaliti es, whi ch
car ried out these cha nges:
The town councillor will walk along th e muni ci-
pal pavement , lit by munic ipal gas and cleansed
by municipal brooms with muni cipal water and,
seeing by the muni cipal clock in the municipal
market , that he is too earl y to meet hi s children
coming from the muni cipal school .. . will use
the nati onal telegraph system to tell them not to
walk through the muni cipal park, but ... to
meet him in the municipal reading room.
It was easy to see the physical changes such as the
growth of towns and cities and villages. It was less
easy to see the social changes. But in fact , power
had moved from the shires to the towns. At the
beginning of the nineteenth century the country
squire could use his power to rule the village, send
children to work in the workhouse, and enclose
common land for his own use. By 1900 he was a
harml ess reminder of an ear lier age. JPs lost all th eir
local gove rnme nt and administrative powers in
1888, and could now only make judgements in very
small cases. New county councils took their place,
which were made up of elect ed men and women,
with a staff of administrators to catty out their
deci sions, a system which still operates today.
The authority of the Church was also weakened. In
the country, the village priest no longer had the
power he had had a century earlier. Churches were
now half empty, because so many people had gone
to live in the towns, where they stopped going to
church. By 1900 only 19 per cent of Londoners
went regularly to chu rch. Those who did usually
lived in richer areas. This remains true today, when
unde r 10 per cent are regular churchgoers.
Why did the poor no longer go to church? One
reason was that th e Church of England offered
them no help with the problems of thei r dai ly lives.
Staying away from churc h was also a kind of
rebellion against th e rulin g estab lishment with
which the Church was st ill closely connected. In
the village, many people had gone to church
because they were forced to do so by the squire,
who probably employed th em. In the great cities of
industrial Britain they were free, and they chose to
stay away.
They were also att racted by other ways of spending
the ir Sundays. By th e 1880s, for the first t ime,
worki ng people could think about enjoying some
free time. Apart from museums, parks, swimming
152
The seaside became !he place
where everyone wished to goon
holiday. Different seaside towns
around the countryeurcoed
differem classes. Scarborough in
Yorkshire, iUustraled here,
attracted !he middle classes. On
the west coast Blackpool,
Lancashire. attracled lower
incomefamilies.
Cricket was a gmtleman's game
in which otheTs could also joinin
as "playm". The division
betueen "gentlemen" (die ruling
establishment) and "playm" (of
lower social status) was a clear
S[(lternent of lhe divide between
classes in Briktin al die 'end of the
century. However, cricket was
animportant bridge between
classes. whererespect was given
re those whoplayed well,
regardless of class. It was partly
far this reason, andalsobecause
it was a game whichmixed ream
work withindividual excellence,
thal die game becamea symbol of
ion play in national hie.
Shameful behatiour in politics or
in public hie""" frequenr/y
described in die press as "not
cricket".
21 The end of an age
pools and libraries recentl y opened in towns. the
real popular soc ial ce nt re remained the alehouse or
pub. Thousa nds of these were built in the new
suburbs.
From the middle of the century many people had
started to use the rai lway to get to work. Now they
began to travel for pleasure. The working class went
to the new seaside holiday towns. The middle class
enjoyed the countryside, or smaller seaside resort s
of a more expe nsive kind . But for both, th e seaside
was a place whe re families could take holidays
together .
The invention of the bicycle was also important.
For the first time people could cycle into the
countryside. up to fifty mil es from home . It gave a
new freedom to working-class and middle-class
people, who met each othe r for the first time away
from work. More importantly. it gave young wome n
their fi rst taste of freedom. Up t ill then th ey had
always had an older woman as a companion ro
make sure th at nothi ng "happened" when rhey met
men . Now th ese young women had a means of
escape. and escape they did.
The importance of sport
By the end of the nineteenth cent ury. two sports ,
cricket and footba ll. had become of great interest to
the Brit ish public. Cricket, which had started as a
"gentleman' s" sport. had become an extremely
popular village game. Although it had fi rst
developed in the eighteenth century. it was not
until a century later that its rules were organised.
From 1873 a county championship took place each
year. Cricket was a game whi ch enco uraged bot h
individual and team excellence and taught respect
for fair play. As one Englishman said at the t ime.
"We have a much greater love of cricket than of
politics." Cricket was successfully exported to the
empire: to the West Indi es, India, Pakistan.
Cevlon, Australia and New Zealand. But while it
was popular in Wales. it never had the same
popularity in Scotland.
Britain's ot her main game. foot ball. was also
organised with proper rules in the nineteent h
century. As an organised game it was at first a
middl e-class or gentleman's spor t. but it quickly
became popular among all classes. Foot ball soon
drew huge crowds who came to watch the full-t ime
profession al footballers play the game. By the end
of the nineteenth century almost every town
between Portsmouth on the south coast of England
and Abe rdeen in northeast Scotland had its own
footba ll, or "soccer" team. These often encouraged
local loyalt ies. Somet imes they symbolised
somet hing more. In Glasgow Celt ic was supported
by the thousands of Irish immi grants and ot her
153
An Illustrated History of Britain
Cat holics, while Rangers was supported by
Protestants. But at this time there was no vio lence.
Crowds were well behaved. Britain also exported
football abroad, as young commercia l travellers
took the game with th em, part icularly to Europe
and to Sout h America.
Changes in thinking
The most important idea of the nineteent h century
was that everyone had the right to personal
freedom, which was the basis of capitalism. This
idea had spread widely th rough the book Enquiry
into the Wealth of Na tions, writte n by the Scots man
Adam Smith in the eighteenth century. After
Adam Smith, several capitalist eco no mists argued
that government should not interfere in trade and
industry at all. Fewer laws, they claimed, meant
more freedom, and freedo m for indi viduals would
lead to happiness for the greatest number of peopl e.
These ideas were eagerly accepted by the growing
middl e class.
However, it soon became very clear that the
freedom of factory owners to do as they pleased had
led to slavery and misery for the poor , not to
happiness or freedom. By 1820 more and more
people had begun to accept th e idea th at
government must interfere to protect the poor and
the weak. The result was a number of laws to
improve working conditio ns. One of these, in
1833, limited the number of hours tha t women and
children were allowed to work. Anothe r law th e
same year abolished slavery thro ughout the British
Empire. While this set a new example
internationall y, facto ry owners were quick to poin t
out that while slave owne rs were compensated for
the loss of slave labour, th ey were not compensated
for the new limit s on labour in Britain .
Such laws did hot make British factor ies perfect
places in which to work, and many factory owners
did their best to avoid obeying the m. But by the
end of the century, few people thought it was
wrong for the governme nt to interfere in fact ory
conditions, health in towns, and education for
children. People now saw these as government
duti es.
154
As so often happens, government policy was
influenced by indi vidual people. At the beginning
of the cen tury Robert Owe n, a factory owner in
Scotland, gave his workers shorter working hours.
He built his factory in the countryside, away from
the fog and dirt of th e cit ies, and provided good
housing nearby, and educat ion for the workers'
children. Owen was able to prove that his workers
produced more in less t ime than those forced to
work long hours. Owen also encouraged trade
unions, and supported the To lpuddle Mart yrs.
Oweri's ideas and example began to spread. Other
reformers, like the Quaker, Arrhur Cadbury,
famous for his Birmingha m choco late factory, built
first -class housing for their workers.
In spite of men like Owen, improvements were
slow. By the end of the century, 30 per cent of the
Most of the poorer classes lived in unhealthy conditions in small, damp
houses, withfewopen spaces. As the middle classes l'llOt!ed
Old to better suburbs, parnof the city centres became areas of poverty, Uke
this street in Newcastle in 1880.
nation was still extremely poor. It was an
uncomfortable fact for the most powerful nation on
eart h. Aga in, it was indi vidual people who led the
fight against thi s problem. Wi lliam Booth started a
new religious movement, the Salvat ion Army, to
"ma ke war" on povert y. His book In Darkesr
England and rhe Way 0 1<1 was a reminder that while
the British called Africa "the dark cont inent",
areas of possibly greater "darkness" were just down
the road in the ir own towns.
Literature was influenced by the new mood of
change. In the middle of the century Cha rles
Dickens attacked the rich and powerful for their
cruelty towards the weak and unfortunate in
soci ety. Painting too was affect ed. A ce ntury earlier
it had been the great landowni ng aristocracy who
had bought painti ngs and paid art ists. In the
nine teent h cent ury it was the main ly urban middle
class, and to please them, artists pai nted different
subjects, such as sent imental scenes of the
countryside, and paintings which told a moral
story. But some painted industrial scenes which
raised questions about the new soc iety Britain had
created. "Pre-Raphaelire" painters looked back to
the pre-industrial medieval and classical worlds
with fresh and romant ic eyes. Lat er on in the
century, many of the first socialists in Britain were
writers or artists. Some of these belonged to th e
"Arts and Crafts Movement", whose members
turned away from the new middle-class values, and
looked to pre-industri al handcraft and to nature for
inspiration .
Above all, Victor ian society was self-confident.
This had been shown in the Great Exhibit ion in
185I. British self-confi dence was built not only
upon power but also upon the rapid scient ific
advances being made at the time. In 1857 Charles
Darwin published The Origin of SIJecies. His theory
of evo lut ion, based upon scient ific observat ion, was
welcomed by many as proof of mankind's ability to
find a scienti fic explanat ion for everything. But for
churchgoing people, who were mostly to be found
among the middle classes, the idea that all animals,
including human beings, had developed from more
simple creatures shook this self-confi dence and led
to a crisis in the Church. Most of the churchgoing
21 TIle end of an age
popula tion believed every word of the Bible. They
found it diffi cul t to accept Darwin's theory that the
world had developed over milli ons of years, and had
not been created in six days in the year 4004 BC.
Even less acceptable was the idea th at over a period
of thousands of years man had devel oped from the
ape. The batt le bet ween "faith" and "reason" lasted
for the rest of the century.
There was one dan gerous result of Darwin's book.
Some of those who accepted his ideas began to talk
of "advance d" and "inferior" races. These ideas
soon influenced Britai n's imperial policy. Several
European countries already shared the view that for
reasons of religion and "higher" ci vilisation, they
could justify th eir colonial policy. But the idea of
racial or genetic superiority was a new one, from
which the colonised peoples could not hope to
escape. They could accept Christianity and could
become "more civilised", but they could not cha nge
their race.
Today it is diffi cult to understand how these ideas
could have been accepted. But at the time th ere
was Iitrle doubt among most of the British that
Britain was the most adva nced of the "advanced"
races, with a duty to govern the "inferior" races.
The end of "England's summer"
At the beginning of the twentieth century people
did not , of course, realise that they were living at
the end of an age. There was st ill a gene ral belief in
the " liberal idea" , that the nati on could ach ieve
steady economic and social improvement as well as
democracy without revolution . Things for Britain
could only get better and bette r.
A growing demand for reform led "New Liberal"
governments to try to improve social conditions. In
1907 they provided free school mea ls, to improve
the health of Britain' s children. The following year
they starred an old age pensions scheme. It was an
astonishing new idea that government sho uld
prevent the old from starving or becoming home;
less. In 1909 Labour Exchanges were opened, whe re
those without work could look for jobs. Two years
later all working peopl e were made to pay for
" nat iona l insurance". It was anothe r new idea that
155
An Illustrated Hi story or Britain
those unable to earn money through sickness Ot
unemployment would be helped by the state.
The New Liberals had begun to establish what
became the "welfare state". By doing so, they made
important changes to the free capitalism of the
nineteenth cent ury. Government, said the Liberals,
had a duty to protect the weak against the strong.
As in th e gentlemanly sport of cricket , the Liberals
believed that even with in capitalism there had to
be "fait play".
In 1911 another important polit ical event occurr ed.
The Liberal dr ive for reform , bot h in Irish politics
and in social affairs at home, was extr emely
unpopular wit h most Conservat ives, who had a
majori ty in the House of Lords. They used thi s
major ity to stop many of the bills introduced by the
Liberal govemrnenr in the Commons in the years
1906- 10. The bat tle of wills between the two
Houses produced a crisis when the Liberals tried to
int roduce a new budget in 1909 which was in-
tended to increase th e taxes paid by the rich,
part icularly the large landowners. The Lords turned
down the new budget . The new king, George V,
put an end to the crisis by warn ing that he would
create enough new Liberal lords to give the Liberals
a majori ty. The Lords gave in. One result of the
dispute was that taxation was increasingly seen as a
soc ial matter as well as an economic one.
The crisis, however, was not only about mon ey,
or about reform. The re was a const itut ional
disagreement. The Conservatives still favoured a
two-house parliamentary system, but they now
recognised that the Lords would have to be
changed. The Liberals wanted one strong house,
with the powers of the Lords so weakened that it
could not prevent the will of the Commons from
being carried out . The result of this const itut ional
debate was the Parli ament Act of 1911. Like much
of Brit ish political development it resulted from a
compromise, but one in which the Liberals won
most of what they wanted. The House of Lords lost
its right to quest ion financial legislat ion passed in
the Commons. Its powers in all other matters were
limited. It could no longer prevent legislation but
only del ay it, and for not more than two years. The
system st ill operates.
156
In the same year, for the fi rst t ime, the Commons
agreed that MPs sho uld be paid. This was a far
more important step than it might seem, for it
meant that men of low income could now become
MPs. In 1906 a new "Labour" part y had managed
to get twenty-nine representat ives elected to Parlia-
ment. It was clear to even the most conservat ive-
minded that socialists should work inside the
parliamentary system rat her than outside it . The
dangers of poli tical evolution were far less than
those of revolut ion.
The storm clouds of war
By the end of the century it had become clear that
Britain was no longe r as powerful as it had been. In
1885 a book ent itled England noted "we have come
to occ upy a position in which we are no longer
progressing, but even falling back ... We fi nd
other nati ons able to compete with us to an extent
such as we have never before experienced. " In
Europe Germa ny was now united and had become
very strong. Its economic prospects were clearl y
greater th an Brit ain's. Like th e USA it was
producing more steel than Britain, and it used this
to build strong industri es and a strong navy.
Why did Britain lose the advantages it had over
other countr ies at the t ime of the Great Exhibiti on
of 1851? There seem to be a number of reasons.
Other countries, Germany part icularly, had greater
natural wealth , includi ng coal and iron, and wheat-
producing lands. Most Brit ish people invested their
money abroad rather than in building up home
industry. British workers produced less than those
in othe r countr ies, and Britain was behind other
countries in science and technology. as well as in
management skills, and did litrle to cha nge this.
Public schools, the private system of educati on for
the richer middle class, did not encourage business
or scient ific studies. Britain had nothing to compare
with the scientifi c and techni cal educat ion of
Germany. Finally, the working class, used to low
pay for long hours, did not feel th ey were part ners
in manufacture.
The balance of power in Europe that had worked so
well since Waterloo was beginning to collapse. The
British believed that the long period of peace had
been the result of Britain's author ity in world
affairs. This author ity came from Britain' s imperia l
and econom ic power. By 1880 the British merchant
fl eet was four times larger than it had been in 1847,
when it was already the world leader. More than
two out of every th ree tons of shipping passing
through the Suez Canal was British. By 1880, too,
Britain led the world in telegraphi c
communications, with lines to almost eve ry part of
the world . London was beyond doubt the centre of
the growing internati onal financial system. But in
spite of such th ings, Brita in found that Germany,
France and the USA were increasingly compet ing
with her. Britain was not used to being so strongly
challenged.
Suddenly Britain real ised that it no longer ruled the
seas quite so assuredly, and that others had more
powerful armies and more powerful industri es. As a
result of the growt h of intern ati onal trade Britain
was less self-sufficient , and as a result of growing US
and German compet it ion started to trade more with
the less developed and less competit ive world. This
experience increased its sense of pol itical
uncerta inty . Britain had been surprised and shocked
by the way in whi ch almost the whole of Europe
had taken the part of the Boers against Britain
during the South African war, 1899- 1902. It was a
sharp reminder tha t friendship in Europe did
matte r, and that Britain was no longer able to
persuade ot he r count ries how to behave in quite the
same way that it had fifty years earlier . It had to
reach agreement with them. Between 1902 and
1907 Britain made treat ies or understandings of
friendship with France, Japan and Russia. It failed
to reach agreement with the Ottoman Empire, and
with the country it feared most , Germany.
The danger of war wirh Germany had been clear
from the beginning of the century, and it was thi s
which had brought Franc e and Britain together.
Britain was particularly frightened of Ge rmany's
modern navy, which seemed a good dea l stronger
than its own. The gove rnment started a programme
of building batt leships to make sure of its strength
at sea. The reason was simple. Britain could not
possibly survive for long wit hout food and other
21 The end of an age
essential goods reaching it by sea. From 1908
onwards Britain spent large sums of money to make
sure that it possessed a stronger fleet than Germany.
Britain's army was small, but its size seemed less
important than its qualit y. In any case, no one
believed that war in Europe, if it happened, woul d
last more than six months.
By 1914 an extreme ly dangerous situation had
developed. Germany and Austri a-Hungary had
made a military alliance . Russia and France,
frightened of German ambitions, had made one
also. Although Britain had no treat y with France,
in pract ice it had no choice but to stand by France
if it was attacked by Germany.
A dreadful chain of events took place. In Jul y 1914
Austri a-Hungary decla red war on its neighbour
Serbia following the murder of a senior Austr ian
Archduke in Sarajevo. Because Russia had
promised to defend Serbia, it decl ared war on
Austria- Hungary. Because of Germany's promise to
stand by Austri a-Hungary, Russia also found itself
at war with Germany. France , Russia's allv,
immediat ely made its troops ready, recognising that
th e events in Serbia woul d lead inevitably to war
with Germany. Britain st ill hoped that it would not
be dragged into war, but realised only a miracl e
could prevent it. No miracle occurred.
In August 1914 Germany's attack on France took
its army th rough Belgium. Brita in immediatel y
decl ared war because it had promi sed to guarantee
Belgium' s neutrali ty by the treaty of 1838. But
Britain went to war also because it feared that
Germany's ambitions, like Napoleon's ove r a
century earlier , would completely change the map
of Europe. In parti cular Britain could not allow a
major enemy power to cont rol the Low Countries.
Gazing sadly across St [ ames's Park from his room
in the Foreign Office, Si r Edward Grey, the Foreign
Secretary, remarked, "The lamps are going out all
ove r Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our
lifetime." In a sense the "lamps" went out for ever.
For what neither Bri tain, nor Ge rmany, nor anyone
else realised was that after the war no one , not even
the winners, would be able to return to life as it had
been before.
157
158
The twentieth century
22 Britain at war
The First World War · The rise of the Labour Party · The rights of
women· Ireland· Disappointment and depression· The Second World
War
At the sta rt of the twent ieth century Britain was
st ill the greatest world power. By the middle of the
century, alt houg h st ill one of the "Big Three" ,
Britain was clearly weaker than either the United
States or the Soviet Union. By the end of the
seventies Brit ain was no longer a world power at
all, and was not eve n among the richest European
powers. Its power had ended as qu ickly as Spain's
had done in the seventeenth cent ury.
One reason for this sudden decline was the cost and
effort of two world wars. Another reason was the
cost of keeping up the empi re, followed by the
economic prob lems involved in losing it. But the
most important reason was the basic weaknesses in
Britain 's industri al power , and particularly its failur e
to spend as much as other industri al nations in
developing its industr y.
Now, near the end of the century, Brirain has lost
much of its earlier self-confidence; but no one is
sure wha t the reason s for this are. Some argue tha t
the workforce is lazy, or that the trade uni ons are
An adt't.'Tfisemmr {or theLondon Undt.7gmund' in 1908 offersrhe lu't'l'l tierh.
cenlllry dream {11f Tl'4tny Brilish pe:ople. As the " lithe" reached 0 141 inro [he
CVllntT'\'Side. ncu' suburbs were fmilf. Here, so the ,!dt.-erlisemetlf a
family'could litre in a suburban house in rhe " mock" Tudur $rylc, Hfj&estit1e
of a age of 11(//;0 11£11 gJUT)' , with their OWTl gilTden. The husband waters
theIll/wm. while his wifeand chilJ In-cpare wuol{m knitting. It is a scene
dUll suggem burn Jomestic happiness and alsoa miJJle-cl.:.Iss prot>eTfy-owning
demccracv. If is an extreme/" cleverad l'eTtlsemem. for it has")SI non e of its
appeal eighty years !mer. .
too powerful, or that there are not enough good
managers. Others blame th e immi grants who have
sertled in Brit ain from the old co lonies since the
Second World War. No one doubts that Britain is
living in an age of uncertainty.
Britain st ill has some valuable adva ntages. The
discovery of oil in the North Sea has rescued the
nat ion from a situa t ion that might have been far
worse. And in electronics and rechnology Britain is
st ill a world compet itor.
A nation 's story is not , or should not be, solely
about wealth or power, but abo ut the qua lity of the
community's existence. Britain's loss of power need
not damage that qua lit y, un less thi s is measured
only in material terms.
The First World War
Germany nearly defeated the Allies, Brirain and
France, in the first few weeks of war in 1914 . It had
better trained soldiers, better equipment and a clear
plan of attack. The Frenc h army and the small
British force were fort una te to hold back the
German army at the River Marne, deep inside
France. Four years of bit ter fighti ng followed, both
armies living and fighting in the trenches, which
they had dug to protect their men.
Apart from the Crimean War, thi s was Brita in' s
first European war for a century, and the country
159
An Illustrated History of Britai n
TheauifuJness of war: oneof Britain's 750, ()(X) dead in the First World
War.
was quite unprepared for the terribl e destructi ve
power of modern weapo ns. At first all those who
joined the army were volunteers. But in 1916 the
government forced men to join the army whether
they wanted to or not . A few men , mainl y
Quakers, refused to fight . For the first t ime, a
government accepted th e idea that men had the
right to refuse to fight if they believed fighting to be
wrong. But the war went on, and the nu mber of
deaths increased. On 1 Jul y 1916 Britain attacked
German posit ions on th e River Somme. By the
evening it had lost 20,000 dead and 40,000
wounded. In fact, five months of fi ghting from 1
July 1916 cost Britai n 400,000, France 200,000 and
Germany 500,000 dead and wounded. At
Passchendaele, the following year, the British army
advanced five miles at the cost of anothe r 400, 000
dead and wounded. Modern art illery and machine
guns had completely cha nged the nature of war.
The invent ion of the tank and its use on the
battlefield to break through the ene my trenches in
1917 could have changed the course of the war. It
160
would have led to fewer casualties if its military
value had been properly understood at the time.
In the Middle East the British fough t against
Turkish troops in Iraq and in Palestine, and at
Ga llipoli, on th e Dardanell es. There, too, there
were many casualties, but many of them were
caused by sickness and heat. It was not until 1917
th at the British were reall y able to drive back the
Turks.
Somehow the government had to persuade the
peopl e th at in spite of such disastrous result s rhe
war was st ill worth fighting. The nati on was told
tha t it was defending the weak (Belgium) against
the strong (Germany), and that it was fi ghting for
democracy and freedom.
At th e same time popular newspapers, using large
print, memorable sho rt sentences and emotional
language, encouraged the nati on to hate Ge rmany,
and to want Germany's destructi on. Na tional
feelings were even stronger in France, which had
already been badly defeated by Germany in 1871.
As a result, when Germany offered to make peace
at the end of 1916, nei ther the British nor th e
French government welcomed the idea. Both were
prisoners of the public feelings they had helped to
create.
The war at sea was more important than the war on
land, because defeat at sea would have inevitably
resulted in British surrender. From 1915 German
submarines started to sink merch ant ships bringing
supplies to Britain. At the battle of Jutland, in
1916 , Admiral Jelli coe successfully drove the
Ge rman fleet back into harbour. At the time it was
said, with some truth, that Admiral Jelli coe was the
only man on either side who could have lost the
war in a single afternoon . If Germany's navy had
destroyed the British fl eet at Jutland, Germany
would have gained control of th e seas around
Britain , forcing Britain to surrender. In spite of this
part ial victory German submarines managed to sink
40 per cent of Britain's merchant fleet and at one
point brought Britain to within six weeks of
starvat ion. Whe n Russia, following the Bolshevik
revolution of 1917 , made peace with Ge rmany, the
Ge rman gene rals hoped for victory against the
Allies. But German submarine attacks on neutral
shipping drew America into the war against
Germany. The arrival of Ameri can troops in France
ended Germany's hopes, and it surrendered in
November 1918.
By this time Britain had an army of over five
million men, but by this time over 750,000 had
died, and ano ther two milli on had been seriously
wounded. About fifty times more people had died
than in the twenty-year war against Napoleon .
Public opinion demanded no mercy for Germany.
In this atmosphere, France and Britain met to
discuss peace at Versaill es in 1919. Germany was
not invited to the conference, but was forced to
accept its puni shment, which was extremely severe.
The most famous British econo mist of the t ime,
Joh n Maynard Keynes, argued that it was foolish to
puni sh the Germans, for Europe's econo mic and
polit ical recovery could not take place without
them. But his advice was not accepted.
Apart from hatred of Germany, there was great
sorrow for the dead. The destruct ion had been
terrible. As one young soldier wrote shor tly before
he himself died, "Everywhere the work of God is
spoiled by the hand of man. " Wives had lost thei r
husbands, children had lost their fat he rs, parents
had lost the ir sons. It was natural for a nation in
these circumstances to persuade itself that the war
had somehow been worth it. Those who died in
battle have been remembered ever since in these
words:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow
old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years
condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We wi11 remember them.
"For the Fallen"I Laurcnce Binyon 1869-1 943
There was also anger about the stupidity of war,
best expressed by Britain 's "war poets". As the most
famous of th em, Wil fred Owen, wrot e, shortly
before he himself died on the battlefield, "My
subject is War, and the pity of War." The poems
written by young poet-soldiers influenced public
2Z Britain at war
opinion, persuading many that the war had been an
act against God and man. "Never again" was the
feeling of the nation when it was all ove r.
When peace came there were great hopes for a
better future . These hopes had been created by the
government itself, which had made too many
promi ses about improved conditions of life for
soldiers returning from the war. As soon as the war
had ended, the government started a big
programme of building homes and improving heal th
and education. But there was far less progress th an
peopl e had been led to hope for.
The rise of the Labour Party
An important politica l devel opment during the war
was the rapid growth of th e Labour Part y. Although
it was formally established in 1900, its begin nings
dated from 1874, as part of the trade union
movement. The trade uni ons themselves had grown
enormously, from two milli on members to five
mill ion by 1914, and eight million by 1918. In th at
year, for the first time , all men aged twenty-one
and some women ove r thirty were allowed to vote.
The number of voters doubled from eight to sixteen
million people, most of whom belonged to the
working class.
As a result of th ese changes, the Labour Part y,
which had won twenty-nine seats in the 1906
election, won fifty-seven seats in 1918, 142 seats in
1922, and 191 seats in 1923. The following year
the first Labour government was created. The
Labour Party, however, was not "socialist". Its
leaders were, or had become, members of the
middl e classes. Instead of a socia l revol ut ion, they
wanted to develop a kind of socialism that would fit
the situat ion in Britain. This was partly because
Labour's leaders did not wish to frighten the vot ers.
It was also because middle-class thinkers before the
war had almost completely failed to interest the
working class in socialist ideas. In fact Kart Marx,
who spent most of his life in Britain studying and
writing, was almost unknown except to a few
friends. Both he and his close friend Friedri ch
Engels, who owned a factory in Manchester, had
161
An Illustrated History of Britain
littl e hope of the British working classes becoming
truly socialist. In 1885 Enge ls had written of the
trade unioni sts: "The foo ls want to reform socie ty
to suit themselves , but not reform the mselves to
suit the development of society." Most working-
class peopl e wished to improve the ir fi nancial
situation and to enjoy the adva ntages of the middle
class wit ho ut becoming invol ved in socialist beliefs.
The trade uni ons and the Labour movemen t had
been shaped by the experiences of the ninet eenth
century. They did not believe they could bring
down the exist ing form of government, and in any
case they wanted to change things by acce pted
constitutional means, in Parliament. This was
partly because they were suppor ted not onl y by the
working class but also by radicals already in
Parl iament.
By 1914 the socialist Beatrice Webb could write:
"The landslide in England towards social democracy
proceeds steadily, but it is the who le nation that is
sliding, not one class of manual workers." That
slide has continued for most of this century. As a
result, the effect on Britain of the 1917 Bolshev ik
revolution in Russia was not as great as many feared
it would be. Eno ugh people were interested in
Marxism to establish a Communist Part y, but the
Labour Party firml y refused to be connected wit h it .
However, Marxism stirred a deep-seated fear in the
Conservat ive Party, which has cont inued to see
evidence of Marxist Soc ialism behi nd the Labour
Part y, the trade uni ons and strike act ion.
As a result of Labour 's success in 1924 , the Libera l
Party almost complet ely disappeared. Liberals with
trad it iona l capitalist ideas on the economy joined
the Conserva tive Party, while most Libera l
"reformers" joined the Labour Part y.
The rights of women
In 1918, some women over the age of thirty gained
th e right to vote after a long, hard struggle. John
Stuarr Mill , a radical th inker, had tried
unsuccess fully to include votes for women in the
1867 Refor m Bill. The industri al revo lut ion had
increased the power of men, and their feelings
about prope rty. Karl Marx noti ced that the factory-
162
owni ng Englishman's attitude of "chivalry" to
women had not prevented them from forcing
women to work like slaves in the ir fact or ies and
workhouses.
A man thought of his wife and daughters as his
property, and so did the law. It was almost
impossible for women to get a divorce, eve n for
those rich enough to pay the legal costs. Until
1882, a woma n had to give up all her prope rty to
her husband when she marri ed him. And unt il
1891, husbands were still allowed by law to beat
their wives wit h a stick " no thicker than a man's
th umb", and to lock them up in a room if they
wished. By 1850, wife beating had become a serious
social prob lem in Britain. Men of all classes were
able to take sexua l advantage of working women.
Women were probably treated worse in Brita in than
in any ot her industri alising European country at
this time.
After 1870 the situat ion, part icularly for middl e-
class women, began to improve. Women were
allowed to vote and to be elected to borough or
county counc ils. A very small num ber started to
study at Oxford and Cambridge in separate women's
colleges. But whi le they were allowed to follow the
same course of st udy as men, they cou ld not receive
a degree at the end. Middle-class wome n became
increasingly det ermined to have equa l rights .
women were more interested in their
legal rights concerning working condit ions, and
they found support in the trade uni on movement.
In 1888 the policy of the un ions was that "where
women do the same work as men, they should
receive equa l pay". It was nearly anothe r century
before this principle beca me law. Female
membershi p of the unions increased, but it was not
always easy to persuade working men to respect the
equal rights of thei r wives, part icularly in times of
unemployment.
In 1897 women sta rted to demand the right to vote
in nationa l elections. W ithi n ten years th ese
women, the "suffragettes", had become famous for
the extreme methods they were willing to use.
Many polit icians who agreed with the ir aims were
shoc ked by their violent methods and stopped
Suffragettes arrested af!er "auacking" Buckingham Palace, May 1914.
Suffragettes caused great feelings of lwstility by their lawless acts , bUI they
believed that il was onlyby acting in SIKh a way thal they couldgain the
attention of the nation. The First Warld War interrupted their campaign.
supporting them. However, if they had not been
willing to shock the public, the suffragettes might
not have succeeded.
The war in 1914 changed everything. Britai n would
have been unable to cont inue the war without the
women who took men's places in the factories. By
191 8 29 per cent of the total workforce of Britain
was female. Wo men had to be given the vote. But
it was not until ten years later that the voting age
of women came down to twenty-one, equal with
men.
The liberat ion of women took other forms. They
started to wear lighter clothing, shorter hait and
skirts, began to smoke and drink ope nly, and to
wear cosmet ics. Married women wanted smaller
families, and divorce became easier, rising from a
yearly average of 800 in 1910 ro 8,000 in 1939.
Undoubtedly many men also moved away from
Victorian values. Leading writers like D. H.
Lawrence , Aldous Hux ley, l ames [ ovce and
Virginia Woolf freely discussed sexua l and ot he r
sensitive matters, which woul d have been
impossible for earlier generat ions.
Once women could vote, many people fel t tha t
they had gained full and equal rights. But there was
st ill a long battl e ahead for equal treatment and
respect both at work and at home. The struggle for
full women's rights is one of the most important
events in recent British social history, and its
effects continue to be felt.
22 Britain at war
Ireland
Before the beginning of the First World War the
British government had agreed to home rule for
Ireland. It was afraid, however, that the Prot estants
in the north would start a ci vil war in Ulster if
home rule was introduced. For this reason , when
war began in 1914, the government delayed the
introduct ion of home rule, and called on Irishmen
to join the army. Many thousa nds did , encouraged
by their MPs, who hoped th at thi s show of loyalty
would help Ireland win self-government when the
war ended.
There was another group of Irishmen, however ,
who did not see why they should die for the British,
who had treared Ireland so badly. They did not
only want home rule, but full independence . At
Easter 1916, these republicans rebelled in Dublin.
They knew they could nor win, but they hoped
their rising woul d persuade ot he r Irishmen to join
the tepubli can movement. The "Easter Rising" was
qui ckly put down, and most Irish disapproved of it .
But the British executed all the leaders, which was
a serious mistake . The public was shocked, not only
in Ireland, but also in London. Irish Americans
were also angry, just at the moment when America
had joined Britain in the war against Germany.
In the 1918 elections the tepublicans won in almost
every area except Ulster. Instead of joining the
Brit ish parli ament, however , they met in the ir own
new parl iament, the Dail in Dublin, and
announced that Ireland was now a republic.
Irishmen joined the republic' s army, and guett illa
fighting against the British began. As a result the
Brit ish government decided to make peace. In 1921
it agreed to the independence of southe rn Ireland.
But it also insisted that Ulster, or Northe rn Ireland
as it became known, sho uld remain uni ted with
Britain.
The Angle-Irish Treat y of 1921 led to civil war
between the Irish the mselves. By this treaty the
new "Irish Free State" accepted cont inued British
use of certa in ports, the sovereignty of the British
Crown, and most important of all, the loss of
Nort hern Ireland, which remained under British
control. The pro-Treaty forces won, and the
163
An Illustrated History of Britain
republicans, who insisted that all Ireland, including
Nor thern Ireland, should be an independent
republi c, were defeated. But a group of republi cans
formed a new party, Fianna Fail, which won the
election of 1932 and the new Prime Minister,
Eamon de Valeta, began to undo th e Treaty and in
1937 declared southe rn Ireland a republi c. The
British Crown was now no longer sovereign in
Ireland.
Ireland and Brita in today find themselves in the
stra nge posit ion of being ent irely separa te states,
but by agreement their cit izens are not consi dered
foreigners in one another's country. Within the
Republic of Ireland th e majori ty have cont inued ro
believe that all Ireland sho uld one day be united,
but without the use of force . A minority, however,
has remained since 1921 ready and willing to use
violent means to achieve a uni ted Ireland.
Disappointment and depression
The men who had fought in such terrible
condit ions dur ing th e war had been promi sed a land
"fit for heroes". But this promi se could no t easily be
kept , even by the popular new Labour Part y.
Alongside the social effects of the war were far-
reachi ng economic ones. The cost of the war had
led to an enormous increase in taxation, from 6 per
cent of income in 1914 to 25 per cent in 1918. The
dema nds of the war had also led to a doubling in
the size of the civil service, and greate r government
control of national life. It was inevitable that the re
should be increasing disagreement between workers
and the government. Just before the war in 1914
there had been an outb reak of str ikes. Immedi ately
after the war there were further serious str ikes, and
in 1919 and 1921 soldiers were used to break th ese
str ikes, and force men back to work.
In 1926 discontent led to a general strike by all
workers. The reasons for th e str ike were
complicated, but the immediate cause was a
coa lminers' strike. An earlier miners' strike in 1921
had been defeated and the men had returned to
work bitterly disappointed with the mine owne rs'
terms. In 1925 mine owners cur miners' wages and
164
anot her miners' strike seemed inevitable. Fearing
that thi s would seriously damage the economy, the
government made plans to make sure of conti nued
coal supplies. Both sides, the government and the
Trades Union Congress (representing the miners in
this case), found themselves unwillingly dri ven into
opposing positions, which made a general str ike
inevit able. It was not what the TUC had wanted,
and it proved deeply damaging to everyo ne
involved.
The gene ral str ike ended after nine days, part ly
because members of the middle classes worked to
keep services like transport, gas and electr icity
going. But it also ended because of uncertainty
among the trade union leaders. Most feared the
dangers bot h to their workers and the country of
"going too far". The miners struggled on alone and
then gave up the strike. Many worke rs, especially
the miners, believed that the police, whose job was
to keep the law, were actually fight ing against
them. Whet her or not this was true, many people
remembered rhe general str ike with great bitterness.
These memories influenced thei r opi nion of
employers, government and the police for half a
century.
It is possible to argue that Britai n missed an
opportunity to reform the economic struct ure of the
country after the war. But instead of careful
planning, businessmen were allowed to make quick
profits, particularl y in the cotton mi lls, the
shipyards and enginee ring industries. But perhaps
there was littl e the government could do to control
the situation, as it was not in control of economic
forces. All over Europe and America a serious
economic crisis, known as lithe depression", was
tak ing place. It affected Brita in most severely from
1930 to 1933, when over three mi llion workers
were unemployed.
In Germany the depression was eve n more severe,
and it destroyed Britain's second most important
market from before the war. John Maynard Keynes's
warning - tha t if Germany did no t recover then
neither would its European trading partners-
became horribly true. Far worse, th e economic
collapse of Ge rmany led to the rise of Adolf Hi tler.
Because the worst effects of the depression in
Britain were limited to certain areas, the
government did not take the situat ion seriously
enough. The areas most affected by the depression
were those which had created Britain's industr ial
revolution, includin g Clvdeside, Belfast , the
industrial north of England and sout heast Wa les.
The working class in these areas st ill lived in poor
condit ions. Men and women could not expect to
live as long as people in richer areas, and more
babies died in the first year of life. There was little
hope for these peop le because almost no one was
willing to invest the large amounts of money
needed to get industry working again . The Labour
Part y was no bette r at dealing with the situation
than the Conservatives.
It is surprising that Britai n avo ided a serious
political crisis in the I920s. The unfa irness of the
situation was so obvious to working-class people,
who had nei ther political nor economic power.
Two-thirds of the wealth of the nati on was in the
ha nds of on ly 400,000 people, less than I per cent
of t he popu lation. In other European count ries
economi c crisis and social unrest had led to great
changes. In Russia there had been th e Bolshevik
revolution . Powerful new Nazi and Fascist
governments were taking over in Germany, Italy,
Austria and Spai n, while France also faced polit ical
crisis. Britain's reasonably calm polit ical life was
proof of an astonishing level of popular agreement
about the basis of government whi ch did not seem
to exist in many parts of Europe.
In the 1930, the British economy started to
recove r, especially in the Midlands and the south.
This could be seen in the enormous number of
small houses which were being bui lt along main
roads far int o the count ryside.
This new kind of deve lopment depended on
Britain's growi ng motor industry, which was based
in the Midlands. In the nineteenth century, towns
had been cha nged by the building of new homes
neat the railway. Now the country around the
towns changed as many new houses were built
along main roads suitable for motor ing. Middle-
cl ass peop le moved out even further to quieter new
22 Britain at war
The despair of unemployment. This line photograph is simply rntitled "SCTeeL
scene inWigan". InLancashireclogs were soU the wualfooLwear forthe
workingclass until after the SecondWorldWar.
suburbs, each of which was likel y to have its own
shops and a cinema. Unplanned suburbs grew
espec ially qui ckly around London , where the
underground railway system, the "tube", had spread
out into th e country. It seemed as if everyone's
dream was to live in suburbia.
Economic recovery resulted partly from the danger
of anothe r war. By 1935 it was clear that Germany,
under its new leader Adolf Hitler , was preparing to
regain its position in Europe , by force if necessary.
Britain had done nothing to increase its fighting
strength since 19 18 because public opinion in
Britain had been against war. The government
suddenly had to rebuild its armed forces, and this
meant investing a large amount of money in heavy
industry. By 1937 British industry was producing
weapons, aircraft and equipment for war, with the
help of mone y from the Un ited States.
165
An Illustrated History of Britain
The Second World War
The peopl e of Britai n watched anxiously as Germa n
contro l spread ove r Europe in th e 1930s. But some
had foreseen this dangerous sit uation, T hey
believed th at the reasons for German expansion
cou ld be found in rhe harsh peace terms forced on
Germa ny by the Allies in 1919 , and the failure to
involve it in the post-war political sett leme nt. In
1920 the Allies had crea ted rhe League of Nat ions
which , it was hoped, would ena ble nati ons to co-
operate with eac h other. Alt hough the League did
not forbid war, its membe rs agreed to respect and
preserve the borders and terri tor y of all othe r
members. But in 1935 Ita ly invaded Abyss inia
(Ethiopia), a fellow member of th e League. Brit ain
and France were anxious to win Italy's co-operation
against Hitle r, who was illegall y rearming
Germa ny, and th erefor e decided against taki ng
action against Italy as the rules of the League
requi red them to do. T his failure to use th e
League's authority had serious resul ts. Ital y's Fascist
leader, Ben ito Mussolini, and Hitl er rea lised tha t
Brita in and France lacked t he will to make sure the
sta ndards the League demanded of its memb ers were
foll owed.
For th e next four years Germany, Italy and their
ally in the Far East , Japan, too k advantage of this
weakness to seize territory of interest to them.
The re was good evidence tha t th e de mands of
Germany could not be satisfied. But in order to
avo id war in 1938, the British Pri me Minister,
Nevi lle Chamberlain , accepted and co-operated in
the takeover of German-speaking part s of
Czec hos lovak ia by Germany. Cha mberlain ret urne d
from meet ing Hitler in Munich. He reassured
Britain that he had Hi tler's written promise tha t
Germany had no more terri tori al ambitions, in the
memorable words, "peace for our time". Six months
later Germany occ upied th e rest of Czechos lovakia.
Britain, realising that war was inevi table, gave a
guarantee of support to Pol and if Germa ny invaded.
Chamberlain was wide ly blamed for his
"appeasement" of Germany. But he expressed th e
feelings of many people in Brit ain, to avo id war at
all costs . As one of hi s opponents, Ernest Bevin ,
166
generously said in 194 1, "If anyone asks me who
was responsible for th e Britis h policy leadin g up to
the war, I will , as a Labour man myself, make the
confession and say, 'All of us. ' We refused
absolutely to face the facts ."
In Septembe r 1939 Germany invaded Pol and, and
Brita in entered the war. The British felt again that
th ey were fight ing for the weaker nati ons of Europe,
and for democracy. T hey had also heard abo ut th e
cruel ty of the Nazis from Jews who had escaped to
Britain.
Few people rea lised how stro ng th e German army
was. In May 1940 it attacked, defeating the French
in a few days, and driv ing the Brit ish army into the
sea. At Dunkirk, a sma ll Frenc h port, th e Briti sh
army was saved by thousands of private boat s which
crossed the English channel. Dunkirk was a
miraculous rescue from military disaster, and
Brita in's new Prime Minister, W inston Churchi ll,
persuaded the nati on that it was a victory of
courage and det ermination at Britain's darkest
hour . Alt ho ugh the army had lost almost all its
weapons in Fran ce, Churchill to ld the nation there
cou ld be no thought of surrender or peace
negot iation: "we shall defend our island, what ever
the cost may be, we sha ll fight on th e beaches, we
sha ll fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in
the fields and in the stree ts, we sha ll fight on the
hill s; we sha ll never surre nder . . . . unt il in God's
good t ime th e New World, with all its power and
might , sets fort h to the liberation and rescue of the
Old." And he offered hi s countrymen nothing but
"blood, toil, tears and sweat. II
Everyone in Britai n expected Germa ny to invade,
but the Brit ish air force won an important battl e
against German planes in the air over Brit ain . This,
however , did not preve nt th e German air force
from bomb ing th e towns of Britain. Almost one
and a half million people in London were made
homeless by Germa n bombing during the next few
months. Once again Churchill brilliant ly managed
to persuade a nation "on its knees" that it would
st ill win.
The war had begun as a tr adi ti onal European
struggle, with Brit ain fighting to save th e "balance
Z2 Britai n at war
Winston Churchill at his desk,
March 1944.
of power" in Europe, and to cont rol the Atlanti c
Ocean and the sea surrounding Britain . But the war
quickl y became worldwide. Both sides wanted to
control the oil in the Middl e East , and the Suez
Canal, Britain's rout e to India. In 1941 Japan,
Germany's ally, artacked British colonial
possessions, including Malaya (Malaysia) , Burma
and Indi a. As a result , Britain used soldiers from all
parts of its empire to help fight against Ge rmany,
Italv and Japan. But the weakness of Britain was
obvious to the whole world when its army
surrendered Singapo re to Japan , descri bed by
Churchill as the worst surrender in Brirish history.
In 1941 Germany and Japan had made two mistakes
which undoubtedly cosr them the war. Germany
attacked the Soviet Union, and Japan attacked the
Unired States, both quite une xpectedly. What ever
the advantages of surprise attack, the Axis of
Germany, Italy and Japan had now forced ont o the
battlefield two of the most powerful nati ons in the
world.
Britain could not possibly have defeated Germany
without the help of its stronger allies, the Soviet
Uni on and the United Stat es. By 1943 the Soviet
army was pushing the Germans out of the USSR,
and Britain had driven German and Italian troops
out of North Africa. Italy surrendered quickly
following Allied landings in July 1943. In 1944
Britain and the United States invaded German-
occupied France. They had already started to bomb
Ge rman towns, causing greater destruction than
any war had ever caused before. Such bombing had
very doubtful military results. Dresden , a
part icularly beautiful eighteent h-century city, and
most of its 130,000 inhabitants, were destroyed in
one night early in 1945. In May 1945, Germany
finally surrendered. In order to save furt her
casualties among their own troops, Britain and the
United States then used the ir bombing power to
defeat Japan. This t ime they used the new atomic
bombs to destroy most of Nagasaki and Hiroshima,
two large Japanese cities. Over 110,000 peopl e died
immediately and many thousands more died later
from the afte r-effects.
It was a terr ible end to the war, and an equally
terri ble beginning to the post-war world. But at the
time there was great relief in Britain that the war
had finally ended. It had lasted longer than the
First World War, and although less than half as
many British troops had died thi s time, the figures
of over 303,000 soldiers and 60,000 civilians in air
raids was a very heavy price to pay for the mistakes
of the inter-war years. The Soviet Union, Germany
and Japan paid a fair more terrible price, as did
ethnic groups like the Jewish and gypsy peoples,
several million of whom were deliberately killed.
167
23 The age of uncertainty
The new international order' The welfare state' Youthful Britain ' A
popular monarchy · The loss of empire ' Britain, Europe and the United
States' Northern Ireland· Scotland and Wales' The years of
discontent· The new politics' Britain: past, present and future
The new international order
During rhe war the Allies had started to think of
ways in whi ch a new world order could replace the
failed League ofN'ations. Even before it joined th e
war against the Ax is powers, the United States had
agreed an "Atlant ic Charter" wit h Britain . The
basis of thi s new cha rter was US President
Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms' ': freedom of speech
and expression; freedom of worship; freedom from
fear; and freedom from want.
At the end of the war the victor ious Allies creat ed
the United Na tions, whi ch expressed the ideas of
th e Atlant ic Cha rter. The Allies formed themselves
into a "Security Counci l", into which they invited
some less powerful nations. They hoped that the
success of wartime alliance could be carried int o
peacetime. But thi s depended on a continuing
feeling of common purpose, whi ch no longer
existed. The idea of the four allies (Sovi et Union,
United States, France and Britain) working
together for the recovery of central Europe
collapsed. Europe became divided into two, the
eastern part under communist Soviet control, the
western part under a capitalist system prot ected by
US power.
In 1948- 9 the Sovier Union tried to capture West
Berl in by stopping all road and rai l traffic to it , and
ir was only saved by a huge airlift of essent ial
supplies from the West , which lasted almosr one
year. As a result of the struggle for West Berlin,
opposing alliances were formed: the North Atlantic
168
Treaty Organization of the Western nations, and
the Warsaw Pact of th e Eastern bloc.
In 1950 the United Nat ions faced new difficulties
in the Far East. Troops of North Korea, which was
under Soviet control invaded South Korea, which
was under US control. Brirish troops formed part of
the United Na t ions force which defended South
Korea. Only fear on both sides limited the level and
extent of the war. But whil e Brit ain became more
fearful of Soviet intenti ons, it also became more
unhappy with the forceful attitude of its ally, the
United States.
British foreign policy was not only conce rned with
the danger from the Soviet Union. It was also
concerned with finding a new part to play in a
fast-changing world, and gett ing used to changing
relat ions with its friends, parti cul arly with the
Un ited Stat es, with the European countries, and
with membe rs of the Commonwealth, a new
associati on of former British possessions.
Britain still considered itself to be a world power,
and rhis confidence was strengthened by three
important technical developments in th e I950s
whi ch increased its milirary strength. These
devel opments were in research into space, in the
design of nucl ear weapons, and in the design of
intercon tinental balli stic missiles. Britain' s
leadership in nuclear power resulted in the
deve lopment of nucl ear weapons. But it also led to
the building of the first nuclear ene rgy power
station in the world in 1956. All these mi litar y and
scient ific developments drew Britain more closely to
the United States, bot h for political and fi nancial
reasons.
However, by the earl y 1960s Bri tain was
increasingly interested in joining the new European
Community (EC) . Brita in wanted to join the
Communi ty because of the realisation that it had
lost political power internationa lly, and because of
a growing desire to play a greater part in European
polit ics.
It was in Egypt tha t Britain's weakening
international position was most obvious. Unti l
1956 Britain had controlled the Suez Canal, but in
that year Egypt dec ided to take it ove r. Britain,
together wit h France and Israel , attacked Egypt.
But th e rest of the world , in part icular the United
States loudly disapproved of Britain' s act ion , and
forced Britain to remove its troops from Egypt.
Until Suez, Britai n had been able to deal with the
United States and the Soviet Union as an equal,
but after Suez this was no longer possible. From
now on , Britain was viewed in a new light, not
only by the two Great Powers, but also by many
weaker countries in Asia and Africa, particularly by
the Arab countries. They began to challenge
Britain 's author ity more openly. Even more
importan tly, Suez opened a painfu l debate inside
Britain, in whi ch poli ticians tried to define Britain's
new internat ional role after such a humiliating
polit ical defeat.
The welfare state
In 1918 there had been a wish to return to the
"good old days". There was no such feeling during
the Second World War, when Winston Churchill
had told the nation , "We are not fi ghting to restore
the past. We must plan and create a noble futur e."
At the end of the war many reforms were
introduced, bot h by Conservat ive and Labour Part y
ministers. Most of them agreed that there were
social wrongs in British life whic h had to be put
right. The reforms introduced were based on the
"New Liberal" reforms whi ch had been carried out
just before th e First World War. But the y went
much furt her, and it could be said tha t the whole
23 The age of uncertainty
nation, Conservat ive and Labour, had moved
politi call y to the left. This move was one of the
greatest achievements of the Briti sh labour
movement, and its effect was felt for the next thirty
years.
In 1944, for the first time, the government
promi sed free secondary educat ion for all, and
promi sed to prov ide more furt he r and higher
educat ion. In 1946 a Labour government brought
in a new Nat iona l Health Service, which gave
everyone the right to free medic al treatment . Two
years later, in 1948, the Nat ional Assistance Act
provided financial help for the old, the unemployed
and those unable to work through sickness.
Mothers and children also received help.
Progress in these areas was the result of new ideas
about basic human rights. Important cit izens'
rights, parti cularly freedom of speech, had been
firmly established in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. Pol itical rights, parti cul arly
th e right to vot e, and to vote secretly, developed
during the nineteenth century. In the twent ieth
cent ury people began to demand basic social rights,
such as the right to work , the right to prope r health
care, and the right to care in old age. The Times
newspaper wrot e in 1940: "If we speak of
democracy we do not mean democracy which
maintains the right to vote but forgets the right to
work and the right to live."
The Labour government went furth er, taking over
control of credit (the Bank of England), power
(coal, iron and steel ), and transport (railways and
airli nes). These acts were meant to give di rect ion
re the economy. But only 20 per cent of British
industry was actually nati onalised, and these
nat iona lised industries served private industry
rather th an directed it. Nationalisat ion was a
disappoint ment. Even the workers in the
nation alised industr ies did not feel invol ved in
making them succeed, as the planners had hoped.
Strikes in the nati onalised industries were as big a
problem as they were in privately owned industries.
As a result of the cha nges which gave importance
to people's happiness and wellbeing, the
government became known as "the welfare state".
169
An Illustrated History of Britain
The Royal Festival Hall was
among thebest of 1950s
architecture. It was built as pan
of the Festival of Britain
celebration in 1951, onehundred
years afterthe Great Exhibition.
But its real importance was to
mark theend of the hardships
caused by the war. 11 wasa
popular celebration of national
recovery, witha new concert haIl
on London's South Bankand a
funfair further upstreama t
Bacersec.
For th e next quarter century both the Conservat ive
and Labour parties were agreed on the need to keep
up the "welfare state" , in parti cular to avoid
unemployment. Britain became in fact a social
democracy, in whi ch both main parti es agreed on
most of the basic values, and disagreed mainl y
about method. The main area of disagreement was
the level of nationalisation desirable for the British
economy to operate at its best.
However, although the welfare state improved
many peopl e' s lives, it also introduced new
probl ems. Government admini stration grew very
fast in order to provide th e new welfare services.
Some people objected to the cost , and claimed that
state welfare made people lazy and irresponsible
about their own lives.
Youthful Britain
Like much of post -war Europe, Britain had become
economi cally dependent on the United States.
Thanks to the US Marshall Aid Programme,
Britain was able to recover qui ckly from the war.
170
Working people now had a better standard of living
than ever before. There was enough work for
everyone . Wages were about 30 per cent higher
than in 1939 and prices had hardl y risen at all.
People had free time to enjoy th emselves. At
weekends many watched football matches in large
new stadiums. In the evenings they could go to the
cinema. They began to go away for holida ys to
low-cost "holiday camps". In 1950, car productinn
was twice wha t it had been in 1939, and by 1960
cars were owned not only by richer peopl e but by
many on a lower income. It seemed as if the sun
sho ne on Britain. As one Prime Mini ster said,
"You' ve never had it so good," a remark that
became famous.
It was also the age of youth. Young peopl e had
more money in their pocket s than ever before, now
th at wages for those just start ing work had
improved. The result was that the young began to
influence fashion, parti cul arly in clothing and
music. Nothing expressed the youthful "pop"
culture of the sixt ies better tha n the Beatl es, whose
music qui ckly became internationally known. It was
no accident that the Beatles were working-class
boys from Liverpool. They were real representatives
of a popul ar culture.
Young people began to express the mselves in other
ways. They questioned authority, and the culture in
which the y had been brought up. In particular they
rebelled against the sexual rules of Christ ian
society. Some young people started living together
without getri ng married. In the early 1960s the
number was small , perhaps only 6 per cent , but it
grew to 20 per cent within twenty years.
Improvements in birth control made thi s more open
sexual behaviour possible. Divorce became much
easier, and by 1975 one marriage in three ended in
divorce, the hi ghest rate in Europe. Older peopl e
were frightened by thi s development, and called the
new youth culture the "permissive society". Perhaps
the clearest symbol of the permi ssive age was the
mini skirt , a far shorter skirt than had ever been
worn before.
But there was a limit to what the permi ssive society
was prepared to accept . Two cabinet mini sters, one
in 1963, th e othe r in 1983, had to leave the
government when their sexual relationshi ps outside
marriage became widel y known . Public disapproval
could st ill be unexpectedl y strong.
ZJ The age of uncertainty
A popular monarchy
During the twentieth century the monarchy became
more popular than ever before. George V, the
grandson of Victoria, had atrended the first football
Cup Final mat ch at Wembley Stadium, and royal
attendance became an annual event. On Christmas
Day, 1932, he used the new BBC radio service to
speak to all peoples of the Commonwealth and the
empire. His broadcast was enormously popular, and
began a tradit ion. In 1935 George V celebrated his
Silver Jubilee, and drove through crowded streets of
cheering peopl e in the poorest parts of London. "I'd
no idea they felt like tha t abou t me," he said, "I 'm
beginn ing to th ink they must reall y like me for
myself. " To his own great surprise, George V had
become a "people's king".
However, in 1936 the monarchy experienced a
serious crisis when George V' s son, Edward Vlll ,
gave up the throne in order to marry a divorced
woman. Divorce was sti ll strongly disapproved of at
that t ime, and the event showed how public
opinion now limit ed the way th e royal family could
act in private life. At th e t ime it caused much
discussion, and has remained a mat ter for heated
argument.
TheBecdes uere anexample of
the new popular culture. They
camefromanordinary suburbof
Uverpool, and quickly became
worldfamou.s fortheir music
from J964 onwards.
171
An Illustrated History of Britain
During the Second World War George VI,
Edward's brother, became greatly loved for his visits
to the bombed areas of Britain. He and his wife
were admired for refusing to leave Buckingha m
Palace even after it also had been bombed. Since
1952, when Elizabeth 11 became queen , the
monarchy has steadily increased in popularity.
The loss of empire
At the end of th e First World War, the German
colon ies of Afr ica, as well as Iraq and Palestine in
the Middle East, were added to Britain's area of
control. Its empire was now bigger than ever
before, and cove red a quarter of the entire land
surface of the world.
There were already signs, however , that the empire
was coming to an end. At the 1919 peace
conference US President Woodrow Wilson's
disapproval of colonialism resulted in Britain's latest
territorial gains being descr ibed as "ma nda ted" from
the League of Nat ions. Britain had to agree to help
these territories towa rds self-gove rnme nt. The real
questions were how long this would rake, and how
much Britain would try to control the foreign
poli cies of these terr itories even after self-
government had been achieved. In fact it took
longer than the populations of some of these areas
had been led to hope, and by 1945 on ly Iraq was
independent, and even here Britain had a strong
influence on its fore ign policy.
The United Nations Cha rter in 1945 also called for
progress towards self-government. It seemed hardly
likely in this new mood that the Brit ish Empire
could last very long. This feeling was strengt hened
by the speed with which Britain had lost control of
colonial possessions to Japan during the war.
In India there had been a growing demand for
freedo m during the 1920s and 1930s. This was
par tly because of th e continued mistrust and
misunderstanding bet ween the British rulers and
the Indian people, well described in E. M. Forster's
novel A Passage to India, published in 1924. But it
was also the result of a growing nati onalist
movement, skilfully led by Mahatma Gandhi,
which successfully disrurbed British rule. By 1945 It
172
was clear tha t British rule in India could no longer
cont inue. It was impossible and extremely
expensive to try to rule 300 mill ion people without
,
their co-operat ion. In 1947 the Brit ish finally left
India, which then di vided into a Hi ndu stare and a
smaller Muslim state called Pakistan. Brita in also
left Palestine, where it was unable to keep its
promises to bot h the Arab inhabitants and th e new
Jewish settlers. Ceylon became independent the
following year.
For most of the 1950s Britain managed to keep its
othe r possessions, but after Suez it began to give
the m up. On a visit to Africa in 1960 Prime
Min ister Macmillan warned of a "wind of cha nge
blowing th rough the Continent ." On his ret urn to
London he began to speed up plans to hand over
power. This was partly because of the rapid growth
of local independence move ments, but also because
of a change in thinking in Britain itself. Most
people no longer believed in Britai n's right to rule.
Between 1945 and 1965 500 million people in
former colon ies became complete ly self-governing.
In some countries, like Kenya, Cyprus and Aden,
Brit ish soldiers fought against local peop le. Other
countr ies became independent more peacefully.
On the whole, however, the ending of Britain's
empire was a highl y successful process, carried out
in spite of some who opposed surrende ring power,
however costly thi s might be. It compared well with
the bloody events which occurred whe n both
France and Belgium pulled out of th eir colon ies.
This successful retreat resulted partly from the great
skill of Prime Ministers and those they chose for the
difficul t job of handi ng over power in each colony.
But it was also the result of the quality of its
colonial administrators, part icularly those in junior
positions. In spite of the great wrongs of colonial
rule, many of these administrators had the hi ghest
ideals of duty and service. It was largely due to their
work that the newly independent countries felt they
wanted to remain on friendly terms with Britain.
Britain tri ed to hold onto its international position
through its Commonwea lth, wh ich all the old
colonies were invited to join as free and equal
members. This has been successful, because it is
based on the kind of friendship that allows all
members ro follow their own policies without
int erference. At the same time, it allows discussion
of internation al problems in a more relaxed
at mosphe re than is possible through th e Uni ted
Nar ions. It was with th e help of the
Commonwea lth tha t Zimbabwe finally moved
peacefully from rebelli on by the whi tes to
independence and black majorit y rule.
Britain also tried to keep its influence by a number
of treat ies with friendly governments in the Middle
East and in sout heast Asia. But most ex-colonies
did not wish to be brought into such arrangements,
eithe r with Britain or with any other powerful
country.
By 1985 Brita in had few of its old colonial
possessions left, and those it st ill had were being
claimed by ot her count ries: Hong Kong by China,
the FalklandslMalvinas by Argent ina , and Gibraltar
by Spain. In 1982 Britain went to war to take back
the Falklands after an Argent inian invasion. In
spite of the great distance involved, British forces
were able to car ry out a rapid recapture of the
islands. The operat ion was very popular in Britain,
perhaps because it suggested that Britain was still a
world power. Bur Britain's victory made an
eventual solution to the problem more difficul t, and
possession of the islands extremely expensive. The
war itself had cost £900 million, but the total cost
of defending the island since 1982 had risen to £3
billion by 1987.
Britain, Europe and the
United States
It was, perhaps, natur al that Brit ain was unable to
give proper attent ion to its relati ons with Europe
until it was no longer an imperial power. Ever since
the growth of its trade beyond Europe during the
seventeenth cent ury, Britain had ceased to be fully
active in Europe exce pt at moments of crisis. As
long as Europe did not interfere with Britain' s
trade, and as long as the balance of power in
Europe was not seriously disturbed, Britain could
happi ly neglect European affairs.
At the end of the eighteenth century Napoleonic
France drew Britain furt her into European poli tics
Z3 The age of unce rtainty
th an it had been, perhaps, since the Hundred Years
war. In 1815 Britain co-o perated with the other
European powers to ensure peace, and it withdrew
this support because it did not wish to work with
the despotic powers then governi ng most of Europe.
For the rest of the century, European affairs took
second place to empire and imperial trade.
Aft er the First World War it was natural that some
Europeans should try to create a European union
that would prevent a repetition of war. A few
British people welcomed the idea. But when France
proposed such an arrangement in 1930, one British
polit ician spoke for the major ity of th e nation :
"Our heart s are not in Europe; we could never sha re
the trul y European point of view nor become real
patri ots of Europe. Besides, we could never give up
our own patriot ism for an Empire which extends to
all part s of the world ... The cha racter of the
British people makes it impossible for us to take
part seriously in any Pan-European system. "
Since then Britain has found it difficult to move
away from thi s point of view. Aft er the Second
World War the value of European unity was a good
deal clearer. In 1946 Churchill called for a "United
States of Europe", but it was already too lat e to
prevent the di vision of Europe into two blocs. In
1949 Britain joined with other Western European
countries to form the Council of Europe, "to
achieve greater unity between members", but it is
doubtful how far this aim has been achieved.
Indeed, eight years later in 1957, Britain refused to
join the six other European countries in the
creat ion of a European Common Market . Britain
was unwilling to surrender any sovereignty or
cont rol over its own affairs, and said it st ill felt
responsibility towards its empire.
It quickly became clear that Britain's att itude,
particularly in view of the rapid loss of empire, was
mistaken . As its fi nancia l and economic diffi culti es
increased, Britai n could not afford to stay out of
Europe . But it was too lat e: when Britain tried to
join th e European Community in 1963 and again in
1967, the French President Gene ral de Ga ulle
refused to allow it. Britain only became a member
in 1973, after de Gaulle' s retirement.
173
An lllusrrared History of Britai n
After becomi ng a member in 1973, Britain's
att itude towards the European Community
cont inued to be unenthusiastic. Although trade
with Europe greatly increased, most British
cont inued to feel that they had not had any
economic benefit from Europe. This feeling was
strengthened by th e way in which Prime Mini ster
Margaret Thatcher argued for a bet ter financial deal
for Britain in the Community's affairs. The way in
which she fought won her some admiration in
Britain , but also anger in many parts of Europe. She
welcomed closer co-operat ion in the European
Community but only if this did not mean any
lesseni ng of sovereignty. Many Europeans saw this
as a contradiction. Unless member states were
willing to surrender some control over thei r own
affairs, they argued, th ere could be littl e cha nce of
achieving greater European unity. It is not
surprising therefore that Britain's European part ners
wond ered whethe r Britai n was st ill unable "t o take
part seriously in any Pan-European system. "
De Ga ullc's att itude to Britain was not onl y the
result of his dislike of "les Anglo-Saxons". He also
believed that Britain could not make up its mind
whet her its first loyal ty, now that its empire was
rapidl y disappea ring, was to Europe or to the
United States.
Brit ain felt its "special relati onshi p" with the
United States was particularly important. It was
vaguely believed that this relat ionship came from a
common democratic tradition, and from the fact
that the United States was basically Anglo-Saxon.
Ne ither belief was wholly true, for the United
States since 1783 had been a good deal more
democrati c than Britain , and most US cit izens were
not Anglo-Saxons. Even Britain's alli ance with the
United States was very recent. In 1814 British
troops had burnt down th e US capital,
Washington. In the middle of the nineteenth
century most British took th e part of the South in
the American Civil War. By the end of the century
the United States was openly crit ical of Britain' s
empire.
Britain' s special relati onship rested almost entirely
on a common language, on its wartime alliance
with the United St ates and the Cold War which
174
followed it . In particul ar it resulted from the close
relationship Wi nston Churchill personally enjoyed
with the American people.
After the war, Britai n found itself unable to keep
up with the military arms race between the United
States and the Soviet Union. It soon gave up the
idea of an independent nucl ear deterrent, and in
1962 took American "Polaris" nucl ear missiles for
British submarines. The possession of these
weapons gave Britain, in the words of one Prime
Mini ster , the right "to sit at the top of the table"
with the Superpowers. However, Britain could only
use these missiles by agreement with the United
Stat es and as a result Britain was tied more closely
to the United States.
Other European countries would not have felt so
uneasy about the close ties between the United
St ates and Britain if th ey themselves had not
disagreed wit h th e United States concerning the
Soviet Union and other foreign policy matters.
Ever since 1945 the Uni ted States and the political
right in Britain were more openly hostile to the
Soviet Uni on. The Europeans and th e British
politi cal left were, on the whole, just as suspicious
of Soviet intenti ons, but were more anxious to
improve relations. However, even under Labour
governments, Britain remained between the
European and Amer ican positions. It was natural,
therefore, that under Thatcher, who was more
firmly to the right than any Conservative Prime
Minister since the war, British foreign policy was
more closely linked to that of the United States,
part icularly with regard to th e Soviet Union. This
was most clea rly shown whe n, after the Russians
invaded Afghani stan , Britain joined the United
States in boycotting the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
Britain sided with the United States in other
foreign policy matters too, whic h alarmed its
European partners. In 1986, for example, it allowed
US aircraft to use British airfields from which to
attack the Libyan capital, Tripoli. One thing was
clear from these events ., Britai n still had not made
up its mind whet her its first polit ical loyal ty lay
across the Atlantic , or in Europe.
Troops 011 !he fr011t line in
Belfast, Ulster. When !he
conflict broke out in 1969 police
faced civil rights proresrers. After
the IRA started itscampaign of
shootings andbombings, !he
Ulster police wasunable to
maintainauthority u n a s s i s . ~ d and
!he Britishanny wasdrawn into
!he fight. Civilian protesters and
rioters became younger and
younger, making it harder far !he
army andpolice rokeep c011[ml.
Theuseof farce against [we/tie'
year-olddemonstrators looked
bad011 relevisi011. Those\I.'ho
believed Britain should C011tinue
10 gOtJeTn Northern Irelandsaw
the C011flict as a security struggle,
while those who believed Ulster
shouldbecome part of the
Republic of Irelandsawil as a
liberation struggle.
23 The age of uncert aintv
Northern Ireland
When Irel and was di vided in 1921, the populati on
of the new republic was only 5 per cent Protestant.
But in Ulster, the new province of Nort hern
Irel and, 67 per cent of the people were Protestant.
For man y years it seemed th at almost everyone
accepted th e arr angement, eve n if some did not like
it.
However, many people in Northern Ireland
conside red t hat the ir system of government was
unfair. It was a self-govern ing province, but its
gove rnment was controlled by th e Protestants, who
feared th e Catho lics and kept th em out of
responsible posit ions. Many Catho lics were even
unable to vote.
Sudde nly, in 1969, Ulste r people, both Catholics
and Protest ants, began to gather on th e streets and
demand a fairer system. The poli ce could not keep
control, and republi cans who wanted to unite
Irel and t urned this civ il rights movement into a
na rionalisr rebe llion against British rule.
In order to keep law and order, Brit ish soldiers were
sent to help the police, but many Catholics saw
them as a foreign army with no righr to be the re.
Violence has continued, wit h bomb attacks and
shoot ings by republi cans, whi ch the Briti sh army
tried to prevent. In 1972 the Northern Ireland
government was removed and was rep laced wit h
direct rule from London. Since then, Britain has
been anxious to find a solut ion which will please
most of the people there, and offer peace to
eve ryone .
In 1985 Brit ain and Ireland made a formal
agreement at Hillsborough that they would
exchange views on Northern Ireland regularly. This
agreement was bitterly opposed by Prot estant
poli tical leaders in the provin ce. But th eir failure to
put a stop to the Hillsborough Agreement resulted
in a growing challenge from those Protestants who
wanted to continue the struggle ourside Parliament
and possibly in a military form.
The future of Nort he rn Irel and rema ins uncertain.
The Catho lic pop ulat ion is inc reasing slightly faste r
than the Protestant one, but there are unlikely to
be more Catholics than Protesrants for a very long
time. Meanwhile young people in Notthern Ireland
cannot remember a time when there was peace in
th e province.
175
An Illustr at ed Hi stor y of Britain
Scotland and Wales
In Scotl and and Wales, too, there was a growing
feeling by the 1970s that the government in
London had too much power, In Wales, a
nationalist patty, Plaid Cyrnru, the parry of "fellow
countrymen", became a strong politi cal force in the
1970s. But Welsh nationalism lost suppott in 1979
when the people of Wa les turned down the
government's offer of limited self-gove rnment.
Almost certainly thi s was because many of them did
not welcome wider official use of the Wel sh
language. In spite of the rise of Plaid Cvmru, the
Wel sh language was actua lly spoken less and less.
In 195 I 29 per cent of the Wel sh popul ati on spoke
Wel sh. By 1981 thi s fi gure had fallen to 19 per
cent, even though Welsh was used for many radio
and tel evision programmes, and in schoo ls.
In Scotla nd, rhe Scott ish Nat ionalist Patty
(SNP) showed its growing popul arit y by increasing
its percentage of the nati onal vote from 20 per cent
to 30 per cent during 1974. The SNP became the
second party in Scotland, pushing the
Conservat ives into third place. When Scotland was
offered the same limited furm of self-gove rnment as
Wales, just ove r half of those who voted suppor ted
it. But the government decided that 54 per cent of
those who voted was not a big enough major ity,
and to the anger of the SN P it abandoned th e self-
government offer. As a result the SNP itself
collapsed at the next electi on, losing nine of its
eleven seat s. But like Plaid Cyrnru in Wales, the
SN P remained active in Scottis h poli tics. In both
count ries most peop le cont inued to suppott the
Labour Patty , partly in protest against mainly
Conservat ive England. Although in Wales Wel sh
was declining, and although in Scotland only a
very few people st ill spoke Gaelic, the different
polit ical and cultural life of Cel tic Wa les and
Scotland seemed unlikely to disappear.
The years of discontent
During the I950s and I960s Britain remained a
European leader econo mically as well as poli tically.
But Britain sudde nly began to slip rapidl y beh ind its
European neighbours economically. This was part ly
176
The discowry of oil in commercial quanfities in rhe Norrh Sea{)'!'ovded
welcome help IQ Britain when its lnuIitimull sources of illcome were indecline
illlhe 19705. Tht! consrnlClion vf oil rigsl)'!'vlJiJcd work {or thousandsof
for whom there were 110 more shi/)5 to huilJ. By the car!}' 19805,
howet1er, 110 more oil rigs were required and unemployment followed. In
addition, mllchof Britain's income fromoil losr (In IHlemploymenr
benefirfor Ihe three millioll or so people ourof work.
Concorde, the result vf Anglv,French co·operarion, rhe mosr adt 'anced
cit'il jerair/iner in rhe twrlJ. Bur il U'aS WU expensiw, no (JIlt' wished IQ buy
it , and irwas a cmTl mercial failure. 11 was ollly used fry the French and
Brilish rwliOJUlI airlines.
the result of a new and unpleasant experience, a
combinati on of rising prices and growing
unemployment. Governments were uncertain about
how to solve the problem, and no longer agreed
that the state had a responsibility to prevent
unemployment.
How real were Britain's economic problems? Most
peop le's wealt h had continued to grow. By the end
of the 1970s four-fifths of homes had the it own
telephones and refrigerators, and two-thirds owned
their own homes and cars.
Compared with irs European neighbours, however,
Brirain was cer tainly doing less well. In 1964 only
West Germany of the six European Communiry
countries produced more per head of popul at ion
rhan Brit ain. Thirteen years later, however, in
1977, only Italy produced less. Brirain eve nt ually
joined rhe Europe an Community in 1973, hoping
that it would be able to share the new European
wealth. By 1987 thi s had not yet happened, and
Britain has continued to slip behind most other
European countries. The British Ambassador in
Paris wrote in 1979, "t oday we are not only no
longer a world power , but we are not in the first
rank as a Europe an one . . . We talk of oursel ves
without sha me as being one of the least prosperous
countries in Europe If present trends continue,
we sha ll be overtaken by Italy and Spain well
before th e end of the century." And he pointed out
that for the first time in three hundred years the
average indi vidual income in Brirain was well below
th at in France. France itself, however, made a great
economic recover y in the seventies. Some believed
that Britain could do the same.
Britain also experienced new social prob lems,
part icul arly after the arrival of immigrants in
Brita in. All through Briti sh history there have been
times when large numbers of immigrants have come
to settle in the country. But until recentl y these
people, being Europeans, were not noticeabl y
different from the Brit ish themselves. In the fi fties,
however, the first black immi grants starred to arrive
from the West Indies, looking for work. By 1960
there were 250,000 "coloured" immigrants in
Britain and also the first signs of troubl e with young
whi tes.
23 The age of unce rtainty
Later, Asian immi grants start ed to arrive from India
and Pakistan and from East Africa. Most
immigrants lived together in poor areas of large
cities. Leicester's popu lati on beca me 16 per cent
immi grant , Wolverha mpron and Bradford abo ut
8 per cent each. By 1985 there were about five
milli on recent immi gran ts and the ir children out of
a tot al populat ion of about fi fty-six million . By
1985, too, almost half thi s black population had
been born in Brita in. Even so, there were sti ll
white peop le who, in the words of one newspaper,
"go on pretending .. . that one day the blacks can
somehow be sent ' home', as though home for most
of them was anywhere else but Brita in."
As unempl oyment grew, the new immigrants were
sometimes wrongly blamed. In fact, it was often the
immigrants who were willing to do dirty or
unpopular work, in facto ries, hospitals and other
workplaces. The relat ionship between black
immigrants and the white population of Britain was
not easy. Black people found it harder to obta in
employment, and were often only able to live in
the worst housing. The government passed laws to
prevent unequal treat ment of black people, but also
to control the number of immigrants coming to
Britain .
The old ninete enth-century city centres in which
black immigrants had settled were areas with serious
physical and economi c problems. In the 1980s bad
housing and unemployment led to riot s in
Liverpool, Bristol and London, worse than any seen
in Brit ain since the nineteenth century. Black
people were blamed for causing these riots, but the y
were in fact main ly the result of serious and
longstanding economic difficult ies, whic h affected
the black population living in the old city centres
more than the white.
There were other signs that Brit ish society was
going through a difficult peri od. The Saturday
afternoon football match, the favourite
entertainment of many British families, gradually
became the scene of frightening and often
meaningless violence. Briti sh football crowds
became feared around the world. In 1984 an
English crowd was mainly responsible for a disaste r
177
Immigrams from different
Commonwealthcountries tended
to live rogether in paTtieular
districts. In Southall, weSl
London. many Punjabis,
G14jaralis and5ikJu from Indill
seeded down, opening shops and
becomingsuccessful in (rade.
at a mat ch in Brussels in which almost fort y people
were killed. Peop le were shocked and ashamed, but
still did not understand the reason for the violence.
The permissive soc iety and unemployment were
blamed , but the strange fact was th at those who
started the violence were often well-off members of
society with good jobs.
Women, too, had reasons for discontent . They
spoke out increasingly against sexism, in
advert ising, in emp loyment and in journali sm.
They protested about violence against women and
demanded more severe punishme nt for sexual
crimes. They also tried to win the same pay and
work opportunities as men. This new movement
resulted from the growth in th e number of working
women . Between 1965 and 1985 the number of
wives with jobs increased from 37 per cent to 58 per
cent. In 1975 it became unl awful to treat women
differentl y from men in matters of empl oyment and
pay. But th is law was not fully enforced, and it
cont inued to be harder for women to take a full part
in nati onal life.
178
Unemployment increased rapidly at the end of the
1970s, reaching 3. 5 milli on by 1985. In many
towns, 15 per cent or more of the working
population was out of work. Unemployment was
hi ghest in the industri al north of England, and in
Belfast , Clydeside and southeast Wales, as it had
been in the 1930s depr ession. Thi ngs became worse
as steel mills and coa l mines were closed. In 1984
the miner s refused to accept the closing of mines,
and went on strike. Afte r a year of violence during
which miners fought with th e police the strike
failed.
The defeat of the miners showed how much power
and confidence the trade unions had lost . This was
partly because they faced a government determined
to reduce the power of the unions. But it was also
because they seemed unable to change themsel ves
to meet changed ci rcumstances, and they seemed
afraid of losing their power .
Inflati on had made the situat ion more difficult.
Between 1754 and 1954, prices had mul t iplied by
six. Then , they mul tipli ed by six again in the space
of only thi rty years. between 1954 and 1984. In
such circumstances it proved almost impossible to
make sure that all workers felt that they were fairly
paid.
Industrial problems also increased the differences
between the "comfortable" sout h and the poorer
north. It is easy to forget that this di vision already
existed before the industrial revolution, when th e
north was poorer and had a smaller populat ion.
The large cit ies and towns built during the
industr ial revolut ion have had great difficul ty in
creat ing new industries to replace the old.
The new politics
Few of the problems of the I980s were entirely
new. However, many peopl e blamed them on the
new Co nservative government, and in particular,
Britain's first woman Prime Minister, Margaret
Thatcher. Thatcher had been elected in 1979
because she promised a new beginning for Britain .
The need for such a break with the past had been
widel y recognised for some years. As a result the old
Conservat ive- Labour agreement on the guiding
principles of the welfare state had already broken
down . In the Conservat ive Patty there had been a
strong movement to the right, and in the Labour
Part y the re had been a similarly strong move to the
left. Both moved furth er away from the "centre" of
British polit ics than they had don e in living
memory.
This basic change in Brit ish politics caused a major
crisis for the Labour Patt y. Labour was no stranger
to internal conflict, nor to these conflicts being
damagingly conducted in public. In the I930s the
part y had turned against its own first Prime
Mini ster, Ramsay MacDonald, when he formed a
national government with the Conservatives to
handl e the fi nancia l crisis of 1931. Four years lat er
it had again been split between its traditional ant i-
war members and those who recognised the Nazi
danger. In 1959 Labour had again publicly
disagreed about two issues, nati onalisati on and
nuclear weapons, which a large section of th e part y
Z3 The age of unce rtai nty
Margaw Tharcher, the Ionge5l 5ertJingPrime Mmurer of the [wentieth
cenlury. Her5lyleandhervieW5 appealed to many Briti5h peoplewhohad
1051 confidenceinlhewelfare 5taleand inrhe direclion lhenarion had taken.
Insome waY55hewas [he finl genuine leader rhe nalion had had since
Churchill, the polilician onwhom 5heconsciously modelledhenelf. Inspue of
lheioa[hat overhalfrhe nation di5agreed tviLh herpolicie5, the y wereunable
to voteherourof office.
wished to give up, whether other nuclear armed
nations did so or not . Thi s time, however, the
disagreements between the patty's left and right
were far more damaging. The 1979 electi on result
was rhe worst defeat since 1931. Worse, however,
was to follow, and as the bitter con flict cont inued,
many peopl e ceased to bel ieve in the patty's ability
to govern itself, let alone the country.
Labour suffered a furthe r blow when four senior
right-Wing members left th e patty to form the ir own
"Soc ial Democratic Part y" in 1981, in alliance with
the small but surviving Liberal Patty. For some
years the Liberal Party had been calling for a
cha nge in the elect oral system. It had good reason
to do so. In 1974 the Liberals had received 20 per
cent of the nati onal vote but only 2 per cent of the
seats in Parli ament . By March 1982 the new
"Alliance" was gaining ground both from the
Conservative and Labour patties.
179
An Illustrated Hi stor y of Britain
Margarer Thatche r had come to power ca lling on
the nation for hard work, patriotism and self-he lp.
She was nor , however, a typical Conservat ive. As
one of her mini sters said, <11 am a nineteen th-
century Liberal, and so is Mrs Thatcher. That 's
what this gove rnment is about. " There was much
truth in the rema rk, for she wanted free trade at
home and abroad, individual enterprise and less
gove rnment economic protection or interference.
However , she was more of a Palmersron than a
Gladstone, She wanted more "law and order" but
was a good deal less willing to underta ke the social
reform for which later nineteenth-century Liberals
were noted.
Not everyone in the Conservat ive Party was happy
about the change in policy. The discontented
members ·became known as "wets", one of whom
argued that "people . .. must at least feel loyalty to
the state. This loyal ty will not be deep unless they
gain from the state protecti on and other benefits",
and he warned against the state's "failure to
create a sense of community". Thatcher, however,
ignored these views, saying that she "could not
waste time having any internal arguments."
By the beginning of 1982 the Conservat ive
government had become deeply unpopul ar in the
country. However , by her fi rm leadership during
the Falkl ands War Thatcher captured the
imagination of the nati on, and was confidently able
to call an election in 1983.
As expected, Thatcher was returned to power with
a clear majority of 144 seats in the 650-seat
Parliament . It was the greatest Conservat ive victory
for forty years. In part Thatcher' s victory was a
result of the "Falklands fact or", Far more, however,
it was the result of a split opposition vote, between
Labou r and the Alliance, and the continued
weakness of the Labour Part y, whic h suffered its
worst result since the early 1920s. Once again the
Alliance had the disappoint ment of gaining 26 per
cent of the nat ional vote, but only 3.5 per cent of
the seats in Parliament . A clear majority had voted
against the return of a Conservat ive government ,
showing dissatisfact ion wit h Thatcher's policies. It
was not diffi cult to see why this was so.
180
That cher had promised ro stop Brit ain 's decl ine ,
but by 1983 she had not succeeded. Industrial
production since 1979 had fallen by 10 per cent ,
and manufacturing production by 17 per cent. By
1983, for the fi rst time since the industri al
revolution, Brit ain had become a net importer of
manufactured goods. There was a clear econo mic
shift towards service industri es. Une mployment had
risen from 1. 25 million in 1979 to over 3 mill ion.
However , Thatcher could claim she had begun ro
return nationalised industries to the privat e sectorI
that she had gone even further th an she had
promised. By 1987 telecommunicati ons, gas, British
Ai rways, Brit ish Aerospace and Briti sh Shipbuilders
had all been put into privat e ownership. She could
also claim tha t she had broken the power of the
trade unions, something else she had promised to
do. In fact , the trade uni ons had been damaged
more by growing unemployment than by
government legislati on. She could be less confident
about increased law and order. In spite of increasing
the size of the police force, the re was a falling rate
of crime prevention and detecti on . In addit ion, the
rough behaviour of the police in dealing wit h
industrial disput es and city riot s had seriously
damaged the ir reputation .
The most serious accusat ion against the That cher
government by the middle of the 1980s was that it
had created a more unequal society, a society of
"two nat ions", one wealthy, and the othe r poor.
Accor ding to these crit ics, the divide cut across the
nation in a number of ways. The number of very
poor, who received only a very small amount of
government help, increased from twel ve million in
1979 to over sixteen milli on by 1983. In the
meant ime, reductions in income tax favoured the
higher income earners.
The divi sion was also geographical, between
prosperous suburban areas, and neglect ed inner city
areas of decay . Although the government sold
many state-owned houses and fl at s to the people
who lived in them, it also halved the number of
new houses it built between 198 1 and 1985, a
period in whic h the number of homeless peopl e
increased.
23 The age of uncertainty
London's docklands. From the eighteenthcentury until the 1950s the
inhabiwms of these areas worked in London's bus)' docks. Then the docks
died, andremained empt), until the J980s when the wholearea was
redewloped. Youngprofessionals fromOlltside the areamoved into .the new
housing (foreground) because il wasclose to the banks andfinancial
instifldions (background) in whichthe-, worked. Although redevelopment
brought newwealth to the area, some of the old dockland
communit), utw saw no benefit far lhemselws 11lO\-'t'd out.
More important ly, people saw a divide bet ween the
north and south of the country . Nine ty-four per
cent of the jobs lost since 1979 had been north of a
line runni ng from the Was h, on the east coast, to
the Bristol channel in the west. Peopl e were aware
of growing unemployment in the "depressed" areas,
and fewer hopes of findi ng a job. Indeed, by 1986
41 per cent of those unemployed had been out of
work for over a year , compared with only 25 per
cent in 1979. As a result , it was not surprising that
Labour conti nued to be the stronger part y in the
north, and in ot her depressed areas. In th e more
heavily populated south, the Alliance replaced
Labour as the main oppos ition party.
The black community also felt separate d from
richer Britain. Most blacks lived in the poor inner
city areas, not the riche r suburbs, and
une mployment among blacks by 1986 was twice as
hi gh as among the white popu lat ion.
In spite of these problems, Thatcher's Conservative
Part y was st ill more popular tha n any other single
part y in 1987. In the nati onal elect ions that year,
the Conservative Part y was returned to power with
a major ity of 102 seats. This was partl y beca use
since 1979 personalit ies had become politically
more important. Thatcher was seen as more
derermined and more convi ncing than rhe Labour
or Alliance leaders. It was also because the
opposit ion to Conservat ive policy remained split
bet ween Labour and the Alliance, and it appeared
permanently so.
There were orhe r reasons why the Conservative
Part y, wirh only 43 per cent of the nat ional vot e,
181
An Illustrated History of Britain
won so convincingly. Its emphasis on personal
wealt h and property owne rship had begun to
cha nge th e way many traditional Labour supporters
voted. It may be that many lower income peop le
living in the Midlands and south shifted their
loyalties to the right. On the other hand, in
Scotland the Conservat ives lost half their seats,
mainl y to Labour or the Scott ish Nat ional Party, an
indicat ion of the increased sense of divi sion
between richer and poorer Britain, and an
indicat ion that Scott ish radicalism was as strong as
ever.
Thatcher' s victory caused concern for both
opposit ion part ies. Labour had done better than
many had expected. However , it still had to face
the fact that Thatc her' s policies were creat ing a
society whic h seemed decreasingly interested in
Labour philosophy, and it had to decide how it
could make thi s philosophy more attractive without
giving up its principles. The Alli ance also faced
serious problems. It had done worse than expected,
calling int o question its claim to replace th e two-
party system with a three-party one. It now seemed
that it woul d take two or three national electi ons
before this question , and the connec ted question of
proportional representati on, would be decided.
The 1987 election brought some comfort , however,
to two underrepresented groups. In 1983 only
ni neteen (3 per cent ) of the 650 members of
Parliament had been women , almost the lowest
proport ion in western Europe. In 1987 this fi gure
more than doubled to forty-one women MPs (6.5
per cent ), a figure which suggested that the pol itical
parties realised that wit hout more women
representat ives the y might lose votes. Blacks and
Asians, too, gained four seats, the largest number
they had ever had in Parliament , although like
women they remained seriously underrepresented.
Britain: past, present and future
By the lat e I980s most British peopl e felt th at the
future was full of uncertain ty. These doubts resulted
from disappointment with lost economi c and
polit ical power. Many people looked back to the
"Swinging Sixt ies" as the best ten years Britain had
had thi s century.
182
However, peopl e were divided conce rning the
nati on's fut ure possibili ties. Some, those who had
voted for That cher, were optimist ic. They believed
th at material wealth was vit al for national renewal ,
and that economic success was about to happen .
Others were unhappy with the direction the nat ion
was taking. They believed that the emphasis on
material wealth encouraged selfishness, and a
retreat from an ideal of communi ty to a desire for
personal gain. They were worried by the weakening
of the welfare state, partic ularly in the educat ional
and health services.
The government said much about maintaini ng
"tradit ional values", part icularly law and order.
Respect for the law, it argued, was root ed in Brit ish
traditi on. It also spoke of a return to Victorian
values. On the other hand, its opponents argued
tha t the traditi on of broad popular agreemen t on
the management of the nati on 's affairs was in grave
danger. Neithe r side was wholl y right in its claim.
For example, the Conservativ e argument forgot
that in the past, the law had been frequently
broken not only by criminals but also by those for
whom it was oppressive, like the Tolpuddle
Mart yrs. It forgot , too, that the Victorians had
valued not only enterprise and hard work but had
also cared about social reform to assist the weaker
members of society. In the same way, when Labour
accused the Conservatives of putti ng broad nat ional
agreement in danger, it forgot that its own part y
origins lay wit h the radicals who stood against
acce pted nat ional polit ical pract ice. But such
awkward facts were easily placed on one side, and
the polit ical parties appea led to "history", as this
fitted rheir view of modem Britain and th e glorious
future they offered if the people supported them.
The re was noth ing new in this. People have always
looked at history in the way tha t suited their system
of beliefs. In 1988 Britain celebrated two major
anniversaries, the defeat of the Spanish Armada in
1588, and the Glorious Revol ut ion in 1688. One
was about Britain's successful military and foreign
policy, the other about its successful const itut ional
development . The popul ar view is that both were
trul y glor ious events. However, the truth is less
Theroyalfamily celebrates the
weddingof Prince Andrfwand
SamhFcrguson. In rhe 1980, rhe
royal family became "uorld
property" ma way if had not
been before. Members of the
royal family became the subject
of journalistic invesrigation, both
in their public andprivate lives,
andbeganto mirror television
"soapoperas" in their
entertainmentvalue.
l3 The age of unce rtai nrv
simple. The Spanish Armada was defeated more by
the wearh er rhan by rhe English navy, the Spanish
navy became stronger rather than weake r after
1588, and the war with Spain seriously damaged
rhe econo my of England . Nevert heless, the defeat
of the Armada has remained a symbol of Britain's
seafaring success. It was given particular importance
in the late nineteenth century, when British world-
wide command of the seas was at its hei ght. By
1988 it was harder to think in the same way,
because British foreign policy had shrunk in recent
yea rs, with a decline in its interests beyond Europe
and the Uni ted States.
There was also somet hing slightly uncomfortable
about celebration of the Glor ious Revoluti on . The
Glor ious Revolution was about the sovereignty of
Parliament in the nati on 's affairs. But not everyone
was happy with parl iamentary life by 1988. Was its
constituency system truly democratic ? Was
Parli ament itself too powerful? There was ano ther
reason for discomfort. The Glorious Revolution had
been a disaster for Ireland. In 1988 there was a
reminder of thi s side of Britain's hisrory in the
confl ict in Northern Ireland, where even the
Protestant "Loyalists" were unhappy with rule by
the Westminster Parliament. In Sco tland, Wa les,
and parts of England, too, there were people who
disliked the centra lised power of Westmi nst er,
which had increased in the Thatcher years.
Britain has more living symbols of its past than
many countries. It st ill has a royal family and a
small nobility. Its capital, cit ies and countrys ide
boast many anc ient buildings, castles, cat hedrals,
and the "stately homes" of the nobili ty. Every year
there are histori cal ceremonies, for example the
State Opening of Parliament , the Lord Mayor' s
Show, or the meeting of rhe Knights of the Garter
at Windsor each St George's Day. It is easy to think
these symbols are a true representati on of th e past.
Britain's real history, however, is about the whole
183
An Illustrated History of Britain
people of Britain, and what has shaped them as a
society. This means, for example, that the recent
story of black and Asian immigration to Britain is
as much a part of Britain's "heritage" as its stately
homes. Indeed more so, since the immigrant
community's contr ibut ion to nati onal life lies
mainly in the future.
When looking at Britain today, it is important to
remember the great benefit s from the past. No
ot her country has so long a history of political
order, going back almost without interruption to
the Norman Conquest . Few other countries have
enjoyed such long periods of economic and social
wellbeing.
It is also important , however, to remember the less
successful aspects of the past . For example, why did
the political views of the seventeenth-c entury
Levellers or nineteenth-century Chart ists, which
today seem so reasonable , take so long to be
accepted ? Why did the women's struggle to play a
fuller part in national life occur so late , and why
was it the n so difficul t and painful ? Why is there
still a feeling of di vision betwe en the north and
south of Britain ? Is Britain , whi ch in many ways
has been a leader in parliamentary democracy,
losing that position of leadership today, and if so,
why?
The questions are almost endl ess, and the answers
are neither obvious no,' easy. Yet it is the continued
discussion and reinterpret ati on of the past which
makes a study of Britain's history of value to its
present and its future.
184
Index
Aberdeen 56,61, 153
Adarn. Robert 116
Adelard of Bath 99
Africa (sec also west , south,
north and east Africa) 4.
145- 8, 169, 17Z
Afri ca Company 7S
Agtncoun 43. 53.54
Albert . Prince Consort 144
alder men 13
Alexander. King of Scots 30
Alfred, King 15, 16
Alliance. Liberal.and Soc ial
Democratic 179- taz
AIH., (1939- 45) 166- 168
America seealsoSou th America.
United States and Canada /6.
31,69, 73, 74,81, 97, 99,
105, 112, 113, Ill, 128. 142,
145, 14B, 154, 161, 163, 164
Civil War 174
War of Independence 112.
134, 136
Annc. Queen 87.88, 96.97.
107
An gles 11, 20, 21, 85
Anglican Church see Church of
England
Anglo-Irtsh 32
Anglo-Saxons 7, 12-15,18,
23, 35, 37, 39, 40, 45
language 64
Angle-Irish Tr eaty (92 1) 163
An sclm, Archbi shop of Cante r-
bury 29
Aquitaine ze. 44
Arab count ries 145. 169
Arbroarb. Declarat ion of ( 1320)
33
Argentina 173
Armada. Spanish 43. 54. 73-
74, 98, 182- 3
army . Brit ish 92-3. 97. 109.
112, I ll, 128-9, 145-6, 159-
60, 166-7, 172, 173, 175
Anhur, King 6. 45. 65. 75
Art hur . Prince of Wales 75
Am and Crafts Movement 155
Atlantic Charter 168
Augustine, St 13, 14
Aul d Alliance 43,44.56,77,
96
Austra lia 75. 116, 132. 148,
153
Austria 27. 109. 131, 142, 165
Austria-Hungary 157
Avignon. popes of 49
Axts. (1939- 45) 166- 168
BBC 171
Bacon. Francis 99
Bacon. Roger 99
Balkans 132
Balhol. John de 32- 33
Bank of England 108, 169
Bannockhum, banl e of ( 1314)
33, 43
Bapt ists 99
barrows [burial mounds) 4
B"H 99, 116
Bayeux Tapestry J7
Beaker people 5.6
Beat les t70- 1
Bede, the Venerable 11, 14. 15,
99
Becket. Thomas, Archbishop of
Canterbury 23. 29.64
Bedford. John duke of 53
duke of 117
Belfa st 165, 175, 178
Belgtc tri bes 7
Belgium 44, 68, 12B, 129, 132,
157,160
Bevtn. Emesr 166
Birmingham 12, 84, 107.114.
128, 1l 4, llB, 154
Black Death (1348) 46
Black Prince 45, 48
Blenheim, battle of (1704) 97
Boadicea 8. 9
Beers 146, 157
Bolcvn, Anne 68, 69. 70
Bolsheviks, Bolshevism 160.
162, 165
Bonaparte 5ee Napoleon
Booth, WiIliam 155
Boru. Brian 20
Boston Tea Party 112
Boswort h. battle of (1485) 55,
56, 68
Bovle, Robert 99
Bovne. batt le of the ( 1690) 97
Bradford 1l 4, 177
Breugnv. Treaty of ( 1360) 44
Brerons 53. 55
BtiSlOI 74, 103, 106, 125, 177
Britain. Great . new state of
(1707) 96
Britt any 44
Britons, Ancient 21
Bronze Age 6- 7
Bruce, Robert 32-3
Brunel, Isambard Kingdom 139
Buckingham 134
duke of 55
Buckingham Palace 172
Burwan. John 99
burgh, borough 16
Burgundy. duke of 44. 53, 55
Burghley, Lord 80
Burke, Edmund 112-3.128
Burma 167
Byron. Robert 142
cabinet government 108
Cadbury, Arthur 154
Cadiz 74
Caernarfon 32, 52
Caesar. juli us 7, 8
Calais 44. 53, 60
Caledonia 9
Calvin. John 69
Cambridge 41. 55. 61, 65. 100.
151, 162
Canada 109, 112. 116, 148
canals 103.123
Ca nning, Lord 142
Ca non law 35
Ca nt erbury 13, 29
Archbishops of 14. 28, 30, 49.
89
Cape Colony 131
Catherine of Aragon 69, 70. 71
Catholicism. Ca tholics (see also
Church) 70-73. 76, 77, 85,
88, 89,94-6,97, 108, Il l ,
114, 141, 149, 154
Ca valiers (Royalists) 91
Caxton. William 65, 75
Celts, Celtic culture 6- 14. 18-
1I , 31, 32, 45, 56
Cevlon 13I, 153, 172
Chamberlain, Neville 166
Charles I 86. 88-93
Charles 11 93- 95. 100, 101
Charles V (of Spain) 59, 70
Charles Edward, Prince (Bonny
Prince Charlie) I I J. 113
charters of freedom 40
Chartists 135, 136. 143, 184
Charbarn , William Piu the
Elder. Lord 109, 112
Chaucer. Geoffrey 64, 65. 85.
99
China 145. 173
Christianit y 13-1 5.17, 19.23.
145
CHUlCh n, 16, ll, 28, 29-30,
35,36, 41, 49,53,61 , 62,65,
69, 70, 85, 94-95, 99, 105,
152, 155
Celt ic Church 14.15.21.32
Church of England 69,88.
93- 5, 99, Ill, 124, 139, 140,
141, 152
Roman Church seealso
Cat holicism 14
Churchi ll. Winston Spencer
166- 69, 174
civil law 35
Civil War 0 642-45) 90,91.
95
clans 21, 32, 56, 77, 113, 116
Cnut, King 16
coffeehouses 104
Coke. Sir Edward 88
Columba. S, to. 21
Commons. House of 31, 61. 79.
80, B7, 88, 92. 125, 135, 141,
143, 156
Cold Wa, 174
Commonwealth. British 148.
168, 171,172,173
communism 162
Concorde 176
Conservative Part y 143, 156- 7,
162,169-70, 174,1 76.179,
IBO- 1. 182
Co-operat ive Movement 143
Copenhagen, battl e of
(1801) 12B
Corn Law 136, 141
Cornwall 4. 5, 7. 11
Co rresponding Society 128
Crecv. baule of (1346) 44
Crimea 145. 146, 159
CromwellvOlwer 91,92- 4, 99,
104
Crornwell. Richard 93
Cromwell. Thomas 68. 70
Culloden, battleof(1746) Ill.
113, 116
Cyprus 172
Czechoslovakia 166
Dail (Irish parliament ) 163
Danegeld 16
Danelaw 16. 36
Dane s see ciso Vtktngs 16.17.
36
Dardanelles 160
Damlev. Lord 78
Darwin, Charles 155
David, King of Scots 44
Defoe, Daniel 109
Denmark 15
Derrv(see also Londonderry) 76
Dickens. Charles 131. 132. 155
Disraeli. Benjamin 143
Domesday Book 25, 34, 36-37,
70
Dorset 5. 6. 8. 134
Drake. Sir Francis 73-4. 109.
142
Druids 8, 19
Dublin 20, 32, 97, 113, 163
Dunkirk 166
Durham. Lord 148
Dutch 73, 75, 87, 97
earl 13
east Africa 177
East Anglia 12. 48,92
East India Company 75, 97. 11 0
East lndtes 75. 108
Easter Rising (1916) 163
Eastland Co mpany 75
Edinburgh 21, 44,56.61, Il 3,
116, 149
Educat ion Acts 151
Edward the Confessor 16-17,
18, 34
Edward I 30- 4, 39, 43, 52, 57
Edward 11 32-3, 43, 51
Edward 11\ 33, 44,45, 4B- 9,
51, 61,64
Edward IV (Duke of York) 55.
56
Edward V 55
Edward VI 70,71,77, 79
18 5
InJ ex
Edward VII /48
EdwardVIII 171
Egypr 128, 146, 147, 169
cisfcJdfods 76
Emsrem. Albcrr 100
Eleanor of Aqui tain e 16
Elcaberh I 67, 70, 72- 4, 76,
77. 79-80, 84, 87, 89, 118
Eluaberh 11 172
empi re. Brit ish 74.-5, 107. 129.
141- 8, 171-2, 174
elect or al polit ics 110. 134. 143.
161- 3, 176, 180- 2
encl osures 81-2. 107. 116-7.
118
Engels. Fncdnch 161- 2
Era srnus 85
Erhclred . King 16
Eton College 55. 65
Europe 3, 4, I, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13,
11,29,31, 40, 41, 43,19,68,
69.73, 88, 97, 101.103. 114,
11 7, 120, 121, 123, 127, 128-
9, 131, 1J2, 136. 138. 141,
111-7,1 19,161 ,164,161,
166- 8,170- 1,1 73,1 74.171,
183
Evangelicalism 137
Factory Act , First (l 833) 125
Falklands 173.180
family life 62- 3, 84- 5, 105,
119-20, 136-7
Far East 109, 166. 168
Farrfax. Ge neral 91
fascists. fascism 165-6
Fawkes, Guy 89
feudalism 23- 5. 28.31, 32, 33,
39, 43
Fianna Fail 164
First World War (19 14- 18)
119- 61, 163, 167, 169, 172,
173
Flanders 44, 48, 60. 61
F1emings 40. 48. 56. 83
Flcdden, battl eof(151 3) 77
Fox. Charles [ ame s 128
France (and the French ) 15. 16.
17, 26, 27. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,
34, 39,40,43,44,49, 12, 13,
16, 61, 67, 68, 69, 72, 73, 77.
78, 93,96,97,98, 107, 108-
10, 11 3, 121, 123, 121- 9,
131,132, 134, 136, 137, 138,
142,117,119-61,161,166-
8, 173
French language 41. 64
Franks 9. 15
Fredenck of Prussia I 11
French Revolut ion 125. 128-
129, 134
Frobisber. Martin 73
Fry, Elizabeth 121
Galli poli l OO
Ga ndh i. Mahatma 172
Ga rter . Order of the 45
Knights of the 183
Gascony 40, 44, 53
Ga u! 8, 9
Ga ulle. Ge nera l de 173
186
Gaunt. John of 51, SS
genera! strike (1926) 164
Geoffrey of Monmout h 5
Geoffrev Plantagenet , duke of
Anj ou 26
George I 107, 108
George III 109. 110-1, 113
George V /48.116,171
Georgc VI 172
Ge rmanic groups 9-11
Ge rmany 14. 15. 39.69. 78.
132, 143,1 10. 116- 7, 119-
61, 164, 161-7, 172
German language 108
Gibraltar 97. 173
Gladsrone. Willia m 141. 143.
148,180
Glasgow 56.61, 107. 116. 134.
149,153
Glorious Revolution 95. 108.
182- 3
GlvndwrvOwam 52
government. Saxon 12
Viking 16
early Middle Ages 23.3 1,
34-5
late Middle Ages 57
Tudor 69. 79- 80
Sruarr 94-5
eighteenth century 108-9
nineteenth century 136
twe n t iet h century 155- 6.
169- 70. 179- 82
local government 12. 13, 57-
8,61,72,82-3, 112- 3
Gre at Exhibition (I 85l) 138,
111- 6, 170
Greeks 142
Gregory the Great . Pope 13
Grey, Sir Edward 157
Grey. Lady Jane 71
Grey. Lord 134
Gruffvdd ap Llewelvn 18
guilds 40-41, 76
Hadrian. Emperor 9
Hallev. Edmund 100
Hanseanc League 68
Harold. King 17
Harvev. WiIliam 99
Hastings. battle of ( 1066) 12.
17
Hawki ns, Sir John 73. 74
Hanove r 96. 107. 110
Hebrides 21
hen ges 5.6
Henrv l 21.26,29,3 1, 34,31,
99, 108
Henry 11 22, 26, 27. 29, 32. 31.
36
Henry III 30. 35
Henry IV (duke of Lancaster}
10- 3,55
Henry V 53. 54
Henry VI 53, 11,61
Henry VII (Tudor) 11,17, 67-
9,73,71,77- 9
Henry VIII 67. 68-70, 73. 71-
7, 79,82,84,87
Highlanders 21, 77, 96. Il l.
113. 149-10
Highlands. Scc ms h 20. 22, 32.
16, 116
hillfort s 6. 7, 8
Hill sborough Agreement (1985)
171
Hitl er. Adolf 164. 165- 6
Holland see(!bt, Ne therlands and
LowCou ntries 95, 97. 117
H o l ~ · Land 25
H o l ~ ' Roman Empire 68.69,98
homage 24- 25
Hong Kong 173
Hooke. Roben 99
Howard. Carhcnne 68
Huguenot s 99
Hundred Years War 44. 53. 56.
68, I7J
Ice Age 3. 4
immigration. immigrant s 39.
40, 98. 177. 178. 184
India 71, 97, 109, I/ O, 117.
129, 138, 141- 8, 113,167,
172, 177- 8
Indian Mut iny 145
Industrial Revolution 107. 121-
9,1 37. 162, 178,180
industry 48, 84. 121-3. 130.
136, 114, 162, 164, 161. 169,
178, 180
Ireland (and the Irish) 5,7.8.
9.14,11, 18.19-21.32, 43,
74-6,90,93,96,97, 104,
113, 143, 149-10, 113, 163,
171, 183
Irish Free State 163
Iron Age 6
Israel "169
lralv 68. 79, 142, 161-7, 177
j acobinisrn 128
jac obites 108. 113
[ er nes I (of Scotland) 56
[a mcs 11 (of Scotland) 56
j arncs III (of Scotland) 56
[ ames IV (of Scotland) 77
j ames V (of Scot land) 77
[ amcs VI (of Scotla nd) and I (of
England) 77. 78, 87-90, 93,
96,98
[ arnes VII (of Scotland) and 11
(of Eneland) 94-97, 108.113
[arnes 111, the Old
Pretender 108
[elhcoe. Admiral 160
j ews 39,99, 114, 143, 166- 7
Exchequer of 39
jingoism 148
John, King 27- 8, 29- 30.37
johnson, Samuel 114
[onson. Ben 85
jury system 36
Justice. Chief 88
just ices of the peace (JPs) 61.
62.80,81,82,83. 104, I11
j ures 11, 85
Jutland. batt le of (1916) 160
Knrhcnnc of Valois 53
Kc/Is. The: Book of 19
Kent 3, 11, 13. 48, 63. 71, 103
Kerwa 172
Kevnes. John Mavnard 161, 164
Kirk. the Scott ish 77,78.88-
9.96,137
Korea, North and Sout h 168
Labour Exchanges 155
Labour rnovernenr 125. 162.
169
Labour Party 143. 156.159.
161-2,164, 169-70.176,
179. 180. 182
Lancashi re 114. 113. 138.152.
165
Lancastria ns 52. 55
Langland. William 64
Lat in 8, 15. 41, 49
Laud. Will iam 89
law and just ice 15. 35-6.61.
68. 110
schoo ls 61
League of Nat ions 166, 168.
172
Leicester 9. 177
earl of 30
Lein srcr 19.20
Levant Company 75
Levellers 93. 98, 184
Liberals 128. 134. 140. 141,
142, 143, 149, 110,1 11- 6,
162,1 79, 180
Lindisfarne GosIJl!I /4
Liverpool 107, 111, 114, 171,
I77
Llewclvn ap Gruffvdd 30, 32
Loc ke, Joh n 95
Lollardv 49- SO
London 9, 10. IS, 16, 17, 21.
28, 41, 71,81,82.84, 91,91.
103,11 1,1 13, 114, Il l , 117,
118, 128, 134. 138,161- 7,
172, 171
Docklands 181
Tower of 43.55, 82. 85, Il l,
Underground 158
Londonderry 76. 96. 97
longbow 44
Lord Mayor of London 41
Lord Mayor 's Show 183
Lord Protector 92, 93
Lords. House of 31, 40. 79.80,
92,93, 134, 143, 156 _
Louis XIV (of France) 93".97.
99
Low Cou ntries see also Holland,
Net herlands 39. 40.68. 128.
117
Lowlands, Scott ish 20. 56, 90.
113, 116, 149
Loyalists, Ulster 183
Luddit es 123
MacDonald. Ramsav 179
Macmillan, Harold 172
Magna Cane (12 15) 28. 29. 30,
31, 88
Malaya (Mal aysia) 167
Malplaqucr, banle of ( 1709) 97
Manchester 84, 107. 114. 123.
134,143, 161
manor 13
March. earl of 51, 52
Margarer of Scotla nd 33
Margaret. daughter of Henry
VII 77
Marl borougb . duke of 97
Marlee, William 99
Marlowc , Chrtstophcr 85
Marshall Aid Programme 170
Man. Kcrl t6 t. 162
Mal')'. queen of Scots n. 77.
78
Mal')' Sruart. queen 95-6
Mal')" Tudor . queen 70-2.73.
79
Manlda. Qu een 26, 71
MayjlOi.tlCT 99
Mediterranean 48. 97. 131, 132
Merchan t Adve nturers 60. 75
Mcrcia IZ
Methodtsrn. Method ists 107.
121. 124-5. 137
middle classes 61. 125. 139.
140. 143. 152. 156. 161- 2.
164. 165
Middle East 138. 145. 160. 167.
172. 173
Midlands I I. 85. 107. 114.
122. 123. 133. 134. 165. 182
Mill. John Sruan 162
Milt on . Joh n 99
Monrfort . Si mon de 30.31
More, Sir Thomas 68. 85
Muslims 25. 27,1 45. In
Mussoli ni . Bcntto 166
Napoleon Bonaparte 107. 127.
128- 9. 131. 157. 161
Na poleo nic Wars 125-9.
132. 173
Na sebv. banlc of (164 5) 91
Nationa l Assistance Act
(1948) 169
no", 73-75. 107. 109. 127.
128-9. 131. 157. 160
Nelson. Horan o Lord 126- 7,
128- 9
Nighti ngale. Florence 145
National Health Service 169
Ncoltt hic 4. 5
Nethe rlands see also Holland.
Low Count r ies 56,68. 73. 85.
97.98
Ne w Liberals 155-6. 169
Ne w Stone Age see Neoluhic
Ne w Zealand 148. 153
Newcastle 40. 84. 103. /54
duke of 115
newspapers 101. 111-1 2. 145,
160. 169
Newton. Sir lsaac 100
Nonco nformists 95.99. 114.
120. 125. 140. 141. 149
Norman 13.16.1 7.20,23.25.
26.31. 32. 35. 37. 38. 39. 52.
184
Nor mandy 16,1 7, 25. 28, 34.
37. 40. 44. 53
Nor seme n 21
Nort h Africa 4. 167
Nort h Atlant ic Treat y
Organisat ion (NATO) 168
Northe rn Ireland seealso
Ulster 150. 163. 164. 175. 183
Nor thumbria 12. 14. 20
Notti ngham 12. 37.91. 128
Norway 15. 21, 39
Ockham, Will iam of 99
Offa. king of Mcrcta 12. 14
Dyke 12. 18
Opium Wa rs 145
Orange Lodges 113
Orange see WiIliam of
ordeal, trial by 35-6
Orkney Islands 4. S. 21
Orleans, duke of 43
Ottoman Empire see also
Turkey 145. 157
Oudenarde, battl e of (1708) 97
Owe n. Roben 154
Oxford 40.41, 49. 61, 65. 99,
100.15 1. 162
Oxfordshire 83
Pain e, To m Il 2. 128
Pakistan 142- 3. 177
Pale 3Z
Palestine 160. 172
Palrnersron 142- 3.180
Parliament see alsoCommons
and Lords 28. 30- 1. 39. 43.
47. 61. 67.69.70.71.76.79.
82. 87. 88- 90. 91.92-6.107.
108. no, I l l . 11 4. 117. 125.
134. 141. 143. 156. 161- 2.
163. 180. 182-3
Parliament Act of 1911 156
Member s of (MPs) 79. 80.
88. 92.93.94.95. 110. 117.
1l 5. 143. 149. 156. 161.
179- 82
Speaker of 80
Stare Ope ning of 183
Pamell , Cha rles 150
Parr. Cathenne 70
Passchendaele. batt le of
(1917) 160
PeasantsRevolt 48- 9. 50
Pecl . Sir Roberr 136. 141, 142.
143
Pcnn , William 105. 119
People' s Charter ( 1838) 135
Phi lip 11 (of Spain) 71, n. 73.
74. 79
Piers 20.21
Pilgrim Fathers 99
Pilgrimage of Grace ( 1539) 82
Pin the Elder. William see
Charharn
Pin the Younger . Wil1 iam / 27,
128
Plaid Cvmru 176
Prime Minister. or igins 108
Poiners, batt le of (1356) 44
police 136. 164. 180
Poor Laws 83, 118. 132
Pope. Alexa nde r 100
populat ion 10. 38. 46, 48. 80-
1. 84. 103. 114- 5. Ill . 133.
1l4. 141. 149. 150
pot atofaminc ( 1845- 7) 149
Prc-Raphachr cs 155
Prcsbvrerians 89. 95. 105
Prot ectorate 9 3. 104
Protestanti sm. Protestant s 69-
72.76. 77- 79.85.89.90. 93.
95.96.97. 98-9. 105. 107.
11 3.149.150. 154.174. 175.
183
Prussia 109. 129. 131
Puritans 84.92- 5.98. 120. 125
Pyrenees 26
Quakc rs 98.99. /02. 105. 114.
115.1 19. 154.160
Quebec 109
radicals 112. 128. 134. 135.
143. 149. 162
railway 138- 9
Raleigb. Sir Waiter 74. 85
Ramil lies, hatt leof( 1706) 97
Reform Bill (1832) 134.142.
143
(1867) 167
Reformati on 68, 69- n. 76.
77- 79.85. 105
Renaissance, 12th century 41
15th/16th century 79.85
Richard I (Coeur de Lion ) Z7-
8. 40. 53
Richard 11 51
Richard Ill . duke of
Gloucester 55. 57
Right, Peti tion of (1628) 89
Rights. Bill of (1689) 95
Roben of Normandy 25. 26
Romans 4. 6.7- 10,1 3.1 5
Rome see also Church.
Roman 33. 49. 79
Roundheads 91
Royal Society 99. 100
Royalists 91
rural life 10. 12- 13. 37- 38.
47. 57. 60. 80- 81. 116- 8
RlLSSia seealso Soviet Union 3.
6.20. 129. 131. 1l2. 142-3.
157. 160. 162. 165.174
St Paul 's Cathedral 100
Salvat ion Army 155
Saraievo 157
Saxons 9. 11-1 7. 21, 23. 32.
35.37. 75. 85
Scandinavia 39. 75. 78
schoo ls. boarding 120. 137
elemental')' / 5/
grammar 41, 85
public 140.1 56
Scotland (and Scots) 4.5,7. 8.
9. 11. 14. 18. 20- 21.23. 32.
43-4.48. 52. 56. 61. 67. 72-
3. 75. 88- 9. 90. 92. 93. 95.
96. 98. 105. I ll. 114. 116.
134. 1l 8. 143. 149. 151. 153.
154.176.182- 3
Scott ish Nat ionalist Part y 176.
182
Second Wor ld War (1939-
45) 101. 159. 166- 7.169.
17l
Index
Sett lement . Act of (1701) 96
Seymour. Jane 70
Shakespeare. Willi am 55. 85
Sheffi eld 11 4. 128. 133. 114
shires 12. 31
shire reeve (sheriff ) 12
Std nev , Algemon 95
Sidnev, Sir Phi lip 85
Singapore 131. 167
slavery 74. 97. 120. 125. 154
Smith. Adam 154
Social Dernocranc Partv 179
Sommc . ba nle of the (19 16)
160
South Africa 157, 146
South America see aho
America 73, 74. 109
South Sea Companv (and
Bubble] 108
Soviet Union see also
Russia 159.167. 168.174
Spnn 67.68.69.71.72. 73.
77. 78. 84. 85. 97. 98. 109.
128. 129.142. 159. 165.173.
177
Speenbamla nd Act ( 1795) 118
Spe nse r, Edmund 76.85
Staple. Company of the 60
Star Chamber, Court of 68
Srephcn of Blots 26
Stonehenge 2. 5. 6
Strathclyde 20
Sruarrs 87- 105. 107, 108. 113
Sudan /46, 147
Suez Ca nal 147. 157, 167, 169.
172
suffragettes 162- 3
Supremacy. Act of (I 5H) 69
Tara 5. 19
Test Act (1673) 94
That cher , Margaret 174, 179.
183
Thirt y Years War (1618- 48)
88. 101
Tol puddlc Mart yrs 134.154.
182
Tories see also Conse rvat ive
Panv 94- 5. 107-8. 113. 128.
134. 140. 141. 142. 143. 149.
150
town and city life 8.9. 16. 39,
40.41. 57- 9. 61. 82. 103.
114. 140
trade unions 125. 134-5. 143,
159.161. 162. 164
Tr ades Union Congress 143.
164
Trafalgar. hanle of ( 1805) 126-
7. 128
T roves 53
Tudors 65.67-86.87. 104.
105. 11 7. /59
Tull. jerhro 117
Turkey see alsoOttoman
Empire 131, 132. 142. 145.
160
Tvle r, Wat 48,49, 50
Ulster 5. 18. 19. 76. 90, 97.
113.163. 175
187
Index
Union Act, Englandand
Scotland (I707) 96
UnitedNations 168. 172, 173
SecurityCouncil 168
United Stares seealso
America 35. 149.150.156.
157. 159. 165- 7. 168. 169-
70. 173. 174. 183
universit ies 41, 56. 61, 65, 1St
Utrecht. Treat y of (1713) 97
Valera. Eamon de 164
Versailles. Treaty of (l919) 161
Victoria. Queen 137,138, 144.
/48. 171
Vikings 15- 17. 20. 21. 32. 39.
85
voting seeelec toral polit ics
Wale5 (andthe Wchh) 3.4. 5.
188
7. 11. 12. 13. 14. 18. 19. 21.
23.31.32. 43. 44.48.52.61.
75.76.79. 81.114. 114. 135.
143.149.151. 153.165. 175.
178. 183
Prince of 30. 32. 52, 75. 144
Wallace, William 33. -52
Walpole. Robert IOB-9
Warsaw Pacr 168
Waterloo. batt leoi(1815) 129.
156
Watt. j ames 121, 123
Webb. Beamc e 162
Webb.Sidney 152
Wedgwood. [osiah 123
welfare state 155-6. 169- 70
Wellington. duke of 128- 9
Wesley, John 123-5
We5.<>Cx 12, 15. 17. 21
west Africa 107. 109
We5[ Indtes 97. 108- 9, 117,
125. 153. 177
Westminster 15. 16. 17. 23, 25.
34. 35. 5/. 90. 117. 183
Whigs 94.95, lOB. 11 0. 128.
114.1 41.142
W h i t b ~ -, SynoJof (663) 14.21
Wilkes. John 110-2, 125
Wilkinson. John 121
Willtam I (the Conqueror) 17.
23. 25. 28. 29. H. 36
William11 . Rufus H. 29
William of Orange 87. 95. 97.
113
Wilson, Wooorow 172
Winchester 9. 25. 34,64
Wind50f 45. 183
\Vitan 12.16
WOlliCY. Cardi nal 69, 70
women 8. 60. 62-3, 84- 5.
105. 119- 20. IH. 137. 161 .
162-3. 178. 182. 184
workingclasses '-19, 153. 156.
161 . 162. 164.165.171
Wren. SirChnstophcr 100, / 0/
Wyatr. Thomas 71
Wycliffc. John 49.61
Wykeham. Williamof 65
yeomanry regiments 128
yeomen 47, 58. 81, 84. 104.
128
York 9. 10.23. 30. 123
duke of 55
Yorkists 52. 55
Yorkshire 4, 37. 48.70, 114.
/51
Zimbabwe 173
Zulus 147
An Illustrated Historyof Britaintraces
the development of the nation from
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fromdifferentsectionsofsociety.
An Illustrated Historyof Britain is a
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